For the third consecutive year, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin (HKETO Berlin) supported the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) in Switzerland to showcase Hong Kong movies. This year four Hong Kong movies - "Mad World" by Wong Chun; "Shock Wave" by Herman Yau; "Love off the Cuff" by Pang Ho-cheung; and "29+1" by Kearen Pang; were presented at ZFF's special session by HKETO Berlin, named "Hong Kong Window", dedicated for Hong Kong productions. 

     Running from September 28 to October 8, the 13th edition ZFF receives more than 90 000 guests and some of the promising filmmakers from across the world. Renowned Hong Kong film director, author and producer Mabel Cheung was among the international feature film jury panel to attend jury screenings, official meetings, media conferences and the award night on October 7. Mabel Cheung will present the treasured Golden Eye Awards to the winners at the award night.

     Mabel Cheung is one of Hong Kong's leading filmmakers. She won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director with her feature debut "The Illegal Immigrant" (1985). Her list of award­-winning films also includes "An Autumn's Tale" (1987); "The Soong Sisters" (1997); "City of Glass" (1998) and "Traces of a Dragon" (2003). More recently, she completed the epic wartime drama "A Tale of Three Cities" (2015) based on the true story of Jackie Chan's parents.

     Mabel Cheung joined the reception hosted by HKETO Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on October 4 (Zurich time). At the welcoming speech for the reception, the Director of the HKETO Berlin, Ms Betty Ho, illustrated Hong Kong's outstanding performance in the past 20 years, ranging from the completion of new infrastructure projects to achievements in economic performance, academic and cultural pursuits.

     "These were made possible under 'one country, two systems', which enables Hong Kong to fully utilise our strengths to progress further. We stay together; we have made progress; and we are ready for new opportunities", said Ms Ho.

     "Hong Kong has one of the largest and most dynamic film entertainment industries in the world and Mabel Cheung is one of its shining stars and an important ambassador of Hong Kong's creative industry", Ms Ho added.

     After the reception, around 100 guests joined the screening of "Mad World". 

     In addition to the ZFF, HKETO Berlin also arranged screenings of Hong Kong movies at various movie festivals in Europe, including the Munich International Film Festival for the German premiere of Johnnie To's "Three" (2016) in late June this year; the Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival in Hungary introduced Hong Kong cinema to its audience by screening the classics "Infernal Affairs" (2003) and "Dream Home" (2010)  in mid-September. The Vienna International Film Festival (October 19-November 2) in Austria as well as the Five Flavours Film Festival in Warsaw (November 15-22) will also feature Hong Kong productions.

     Earlier in July, a festival on Hong Kong movies was staged by HKETO in Berlin with the support of Create Hong Kong, a dedicated agency set up under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the HKSAR.  

     HKETO Berlin is the official HKSAR Government representative in commercial relations and other economic and trade matters in Switzerland as well as Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

Ends/Thursday, October 5, 2017
Issued at HKT 22:54

NNNN