▶ BCM288 TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA AND CULTURE INDUSTRIES
Film Festivals are a platform for those independent filmmakers who want to be recognised by a bigger audience. It is a way for local directors and filmmakers to get their work out to other directors and filmmakers to give traction to their work to be pre-released to a small portion of the public eye (Watson, 2005). It is commonly used as a quality test to weed out good and bad directors and filmmakers.
That said, in Hong Kong, there are two very unique types of film festivals that are commonly held in the city. The HKAFF (Hong Kong Asian Film Festival) and the Hong Kong French Film Festival. Both have their own well-received qualities and downsides; even though these factors exist, locals and people overseas alike do enjoy the film festivals anyways.
The film festival scene in Hong Kong has several other unique qualities but they have one thing in common, their customers that has an interest in the art of film. HKAFF has showcased many local movies made by local film directors in their own native language; Cantonese, with consideration to overseas audiences by providing English subtitles.
Secondly, the Hong Kong French Film Festival has made an impression on the local film festival industry by introducing European culture and film to create a new audience that enjoys European films as well. This type of festival is mostly catered to the local audience because its main purpose is to educate the locals in worldly culture.
Both of these film festivals serve a purpose of educating the public with culture and film from different countries as well as local countries (i.e. Hong Kong), and it is a way to gain a certain type of respect from different types of audiences whether that is filmmakers and directors, citizens who are interested in knowing more about film and/or a certain country’s culture, or even aspiring filmmakers and directors such as students who are willing to learn more about how to earn a place in the film community.
References:
- Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. (n.d.). Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. Retrieved from http://www.hkaff.asia/index.html.
- Hong Kong French Film Festival. (n.d.). Hong Kong French Film Festival 2019. Retrieved from https://www.hkfrenchfilmfestival.com/.Watson, S. (2005, May 20).
- What are film festivals? Retrieved from https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question743.htm.
Jessica Pauline Camille Ablog Mercado 