Hong Kong Arts Centre revives Asian film competition after 17-month hiatus, adds nat. security terms

2026-03-03 - 05:05

The Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) has revived an Asian film competition after a 17-month hiatus, adding new terms requiring participants to ensure their work complies with the city’s national security legislation. The HKAC’s Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia (ifva) Awards opened for applications on Sunday. A poster for the ifva festival. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Centre. According to the awards’ rules and regulations, “entrants must acknowledge and agree [that] the submitted entry... does not violate any provisions of the National Security Law, including these pertaining to secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign entities.” In addition, in accordance with the Film Censorship Ordinance, the HKAC will submit all films competing for the awards to the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA) for examination, the organisers said. If any submitted entry is not approved by OFNAA, the HKAC is not obliged to screen it at any of its venues and/or events. However, the entry will remain eligible for the competition. Cancelled screenings The HKAC announced in late September 2024 that the ifva competition would take a “brief hiatus” to reassess and adjust its future direction. Prior to that, screenings of two films were cancelled in 2022 after they failed to pass OFNAA’s approval. In June 2022, Hong Kong director Erica Kwok withdrew her short film, The Dancing Voice of Youth, from the ifva showcase after OFNAA said it contained “ungrounded statements” with the potential to incite hatred against the government. She was told the film could not be screened unless she amended her work to align with OFNAA’s comments. However, Kwok declined. Months later, in October 2022, Taiwanese director Tseng Wen-chen pulled The Lucky Woman – her documentary about migrant workers in Taiwan – from the ifva Festival after she refused to comply with OFNAA’s request to remove protest scenes from the film. The Lucky Woman. Photo: screenshot. Other events in Hong Kong have included national security terms in their participation rules in recent years, following the enactment of Beijing’s national security law in June 2021 and the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known colloquially as Article 23, in March 2024. In 2024, the Trade Development Council reminded exhibitors at the Hong Kong Book Fair to obey Hong Kong laws, including the national security legislation. Hong Kong filmmaker Kiwi Chow said in December last year that OFNAA had denied his Taiwan-produced film Deadline a public screening in the city because it could harm national security.