Market in focus: Hong Kong Filmart returns to face-to-face events as the Chinese market reopens

After three years of being exclusively online, the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (Filmart), Asia’s largest pre-pandemic content market, finally returns as a fully-fledged in-person event (March 13-16, 2023).

Hong Kong also lifted the latest of its Covid restrictions earlier this week, when the ban on wearing indoor and outdoor masks was finally lifted. The news marks the end of one of the world’s strictest Covid prevention regimes, which included a hotel quarantine on arrival until last September and effectively kept Filmart online until March 2022, just as the rest of the international film market circuit made a comeback as physical events.

Filmart’s return also coincides with the long-awaited reopening of the market in mainland China. China began to somewhat abruptly lift its Covid restrictions late last year, and last month the border between Hong Kong and China fully reopened. After a sluggish 2022, China’s box office seemed to have recovered, even during the recent Chinese New Year holiday (January 21-27), with the total box office earning around US$1 billion.

According to Filmart’s organizer, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), these sudden changes led to a flood of inquiries from Chinese companies in the late stage of Filmart’s presence. “We expect the number of exhibitors from mainland China to be even higher than in 2019,” said Peggie Liu, deputy director of HKTDC.

“Many Chinese companies say they have not been anywhere outside the mainland for more than two years, so they like to come back to Hong Kong for food, friends and of course business. They don’t just want to buy and sell, they also want to talk about investment projects.”

Among the Chinese companies registered for the event are all three major streamers, iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video, along with major film and television producers such as Bona Film Group, Huace Film & TV and Wanda Pictures, as well as commercial agents, among their Blossoms. Entertainment and CMC graphics.

Meanwhile, Filmart’s Entertainment Pulse conference offers post-pandemic media business sessions in Asia with speakers such as CJ ENM’s Sebastian Kim and Zee Entertainment’s Sanmesh Thakur, as well as China-focused sessions with Bona Film Group COO Jiang Defu and Daylight Entertainment’s president Hou Hongliang . Other sessions will focus on Chinese cartoons, dating and romantic reality shows, and the future of Web3 entertainment.

Overall, Liu expects admissions to be around 80% of pre-pandemic levels, which she says is comparable to other recovering film and television markets. One of the problems facing the event is that although Hong Kong is now fully open, the city’s international flight schedule is still not back to full capacity. Liu’s team was busy helping visitors organize their flight schedules and trying to arrange hotel discounts for groups and sponsors.

Film exhibitors have also benefited from the Hong Kong government’s Convention and Exhibition Industry Grant Scheme, which offers grants of up to HK$10,000 (US$1,275) per nine square meters of stand space. The Hong Kong Tourism Board is also upping the ante with gifts and meal vouchers for visitors as part of its Hello Hong Kong campaign.

For those unable to attend in person, Filmart will open its online platform on the last day of the market and keep it open throughout the month of April, allowing users to browse companies and content and view the Entertainment Pulse sessions. “We still get a lot of questions about online-only participation because some companies don’t have a budget or it’s still difficult to travel,” says Liu.

Recurring umbrella organizations are: European Film Promotion (EFP); Korean Film Council (KOFIC) and Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA); Japanese UniJapan and International Drama Festival, Tokyo; Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA); and a delegation of more than 20 Thai companies under the umbrella of the Thai government.

The Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the trade association of independent producers and distributors worldwide, is also returning to Filmart. The IFTA Pavilion will host seven companies – CineTel Films, CMC Pictures, Lakeshore, Millennium Media, Premiere Entertainment, Vision Films and Voltage Pictures – while a dozen other IFTA members will also be in attendance.

“While online events have supported our industry in recent years, there is simply no substitute for in-person markets,” said IFTA President and CEO Jean Prewitt. “Filmart is an important show and we are delighted that our friends at HKTDC are back in full swing and Hong Kong is back open for our members’ business.”

However, not all country or industry pavilions decided to return to Hong Kong. Among the delegations absent this year are the Film Development Board of the Philippines, the Singapore Film Commission and Film Export UK. While some organizations are undergoing internal restructuring, others are rethinking their travel priorities or are uncertain about business opportunities in the post-pandemic landscape.

Cinema has always been closely associated with the market in mainland China and although it is slowly starting to reopen, for more than three years it has been difficult to co-invest or sell in this market, so it has been left off the priority list. some companies were gone. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s political landscape has changed dramatically since the last physical issue of Filmart, with pro-democracy protests in the second half of 2019 and the implementation of the National Security Law in June 2020.

When asked by Deadline, Film Export UK said: “Our public funding partners have neither encouraged nor discouraged us from participating, but we are listening carefully to the members of our distribution company and they are ambivalent – nostalgic for the booming market of five years ago, probably but ambivalent about today’s commercial prospects and political background.”

Filmart and Entertainment Pulse both take place as part of the wider Hong Kong Entertainment Expo, which also includes the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF, March 13-15) and the Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 30-10). April) belongs. , Asian Film Awards (March 12), Hong Kong Film Awards (April 16), Talent Factory ifva and Digital Entertainment Summit.

HAF, which will be held jointly with Filmart at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, has announced 28 projects in development and 15 ongoing projects from across Asia for its first physical edition since 2019. The Asian Film Awards takes place the night before Filmart at the new Hong Kong Palace Museum in West Kowloon opens.