Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum: Project Market

Eligibility and project requirements

THE REAL GATE IS ATTACHMENT, NOT NATIONALITY. Projects must be a full-length live-action or animated film of 60 minutes or longer with an attached director, producer AND production company, at script development or pre-production stage, with a proposed budget and not fully financed. The applicant must be the copyright owner or authorised to act for them, and the required materials independently enforce this by demanding a producer biography and filmography and a production company profile. An unattached writer cannot apply. Animation must have at least 75 per cent of its runtime created through animation. On nationality, the forum's own pages give two different pictures and we have verified both: the FAQ states that HAF is open to projects with Asian elements OR Asian in key creative roles such as directors and producers, which as a disjunction would admit a non-Asian writer with an Asian-set story, while the formal eligibility and selection criteria page carries no nationality or content requirement at all, its only Asia reference being a market-potential test. Asian framing otherwise appears on individual award terms rather than on eligibility. A New Director concession applies to directors with no commercially released feature, animation or documentary of 60 minutes or longer in any country.

Formats

Feature

Eligibility

Open worldwide

Deadlines & fees

Dates and fees checked against the official site 19 Oct 2026. That is longer ago than we aim for; confirm on the official site before entering.

Prepare your entry

Prizes

A substantial award slate, most of it in Hong Kong dollars. The main HAF in-development awards are 100,000 Hong Kong dollars each to two projects, one Hong Kong including co-production and one outside, funded by the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the Hong Kong Film Development Fund and HKIFF Industry. Alongside them sit a Sky Animation Award of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, a HAF X CNC Award of 10,000 euro, a Taipei Film Commission Award of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars, a La Fonte Award of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars split as 30,000 cash and 70,000 in kind, and a White Light post-production award of 15,000 US dollars, plus in-kind awards from Aputure, Phenom Films and Pica Pica Media. No repayment, recoupment or profit participation is published for any award. RIGHTS: none taken. No option, first refusal, exclusivity, profit participation or copyright share appears anywhere; the only rights-adjacent terms are protective confidentiality clauses. TRAVEL IS COVERED: the forum arranges and pays travel from and to the country or city of residence, plus accommodation, for representatives of selected non-Hong Kong projects.

Judging

Selection is by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, whose decisions are final; no judges or selectors are named and no feedback is offered or sold. Submitted materials are treated as confidential and used only by the Society, its affiliates and designated personnel, and are not returned. Attendance is mandatory: at least one representative of each selected project must attend all meetings and events organised by the forum.

Frequently asked questions