Director of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, New York, Monica Chen (left), talks about the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's support of the creative industry at the press conference for the 5th Atlanta Asian Film Festival.

Hong Kong films will once again be featured at an international film festival in the United States.

The 5th Atlanta Asian Film Festival, to be held October 9-17 in Atlanta,  will feature two Hong Kong productions — Kenneth Bi’s The Drummer  and Derek Kwok’s The Pye-Dog — alongside a selection of 10 films representing China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.  Hong Kong is the only location that will have two of its films featured in the festival.

At an August 27 news conference in Atlanta to announce the festival details, Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), New York, Monica Chen thanked the selection committee for recognizing the importance of Hong Kong films.  “The fact that Hong Kong has two films in the festival is testimony to the special status Hong Kong has enjoyed in the international film circle,” she said.

Ms. Chen added that the creative industry plays an important role in Hong Kong’s economy, with approximately 32,000 creative industry-related establishments, engaging more than 170,000 practitioners. The industry creates an annual added value of more than US$7.7 billion to Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product, or approximately 4% of the territory’s GDP.

“The Hong Kong Government has always been highly supportive of our creative industries. With a view to upholding Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s creative hub, in June this year, the Hong Kong Government established the ‘Create Hong Kong’ office.  Create Hong Kong is an agency dedicated to facilitating start-ups and nurturing of a pool of creative human capital,” said Ms. Chen.

“The agency manages the Film Services Office, the Film Development Fund, and the Film Guarantee Fund.  These three offices work together to provide supports for the film industry, including facilitating film productions in Hong Kong, promoting Hong Kong films locally and overseas, and providing financial support for film industry projects, including film productions.”

Ms. Chen noted that Hong Kong is focused this year to introduce the next generation of 33 film makers.  She said, “These film makers add to Hong Kong’s pool of existing talents, many of whom the U.S. audience are familiar with.  They possess the flare, the vitality, and, most importantly, the vision to continue the robust development of our thriving creative film industry.”

With the concerted effort of HKETO, Hong Kong films have been shown at a Hong Kong film festival in Chicago in May and in the New York Asian Film Festival in June.  More exposure is expected in Chicago and Boston in the later part of 2009.