Hong Kongs Asia Film Financing Forum, the regions leading movie project market, has unveiled the 25 titles selected for its upcoming 2025 edition. The program features films that are in development from some of Asias most accomplished directors and producers, including Kore-eda Hirokazu, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Nai An, Stanley Kwan and Yeh Ju-Feng.

The three-day event, the anchor component of the expanded Hong Kong International Film Festivals Industry Project Market, will take place March 17-19 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre alongside the 29th Hong Kong Filmart. Those shortlisted are remarkable for their cultural diversity. They showcase extraordinary storytelling in a broad range of genres, from action to sci-fi, fantasy, suspense, and horror, noted HKIFF Industry director Jacob Wong, who added that the organization had received 276 in-development project submissions from 45 countries and regions, spanning Hong Kong, Thailand, Turkey, Japan, Kazakhstan and South Korea.

There are nine projects from female directors this year, as well as several collaborations involving filmmakers from Asia, Europe, and North America, underscoring Hong Kongs position at the crossroads of the global film industry.

Wong added that 13 of the selected projects have already secured partial funding, with budgets ranging from $200,000 to $5 million.

In keeping with HAFs mission to support new Asian talent, ten of this years projects are from debut directors.

Highlights include the France-China collaboration 49 Days from first-timer Hu Wei. Produced by Sylvie Pialat and Nai An, the film follows a divorced Chinese couple who reunite in Paris to arrange their sons funeral and confront their past. From India, Aditya Vikram Sengupta produces new director Niladri Mukherjee on Republic of Mahalaxmi Apartment, which examines the countrys majority rule issues through a single-mother tenant who becomes her housing estates public enemy when she flags a malfunctioning elevator. Esteemed Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu, meanwhile, has thrown his support behind newcomer Yamaura Miyoh, the director of Yellow, which grapples with a character living a life of self-punishment after his involvement in a fatal car accident.

The bulk of this years projects feature original stories, although there are two adaptations in the mix. Adapted from Chinese sci-fi writer Gu Shis Hugo Award-shortlisted novelette, filmmaker Wang Kunlins 2181 Overture focuses on a scientist who, upon waking up from cryogenic hibernation, must adjust to a new world while finding her lost daughter through a book she left behind. Edmund Yeo (Aqrat), a past winner of the Tokyo International Film Festivals best director prize, will direct The Age of Goodbyes, based on Malaysian writer Li Zi Shus bestselling novel.

Two projects featuring hometown Hong Kong directors are also in the mix. In Fan Ka Chuns horror suspense thriller Something in the Way, a detective suffering from face blindness must stop himself from becoming a monster as repressed memories of his missing mother resurface. Open Fire by Sze Pak-lam and Lau Wing-tai (Guilt By Design), meanwhile, is a crime action-cum-disaster film that revolves around a firefighter who must rescue his wife from a slum fire ignited by Interpol during their raid on terrorism.

Wong added the HKIFF Industry Project Market will feature several animation projects at different stages of development or production in a new standalone section this year. Those shortlisted animation projects will be revealed in mid-February. The second edition of the biannual HKIFF Industry-CAA China Genre Initiative, a new program dedicated to Chinese-language genre films, wont take place until 2026, but CAA China will offer a new script development award during this years market.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Societys full selection of in-development projects for 2025 is below.

2181 Overture**, Mainland China, Canada

Director: Wang Kunlin

Producer: Zhao Zheyuan

Production Company: Yeahcheer Pictures Co.

49 Days, France, Mainland China

Director: Hu Wei

Producer: Sylvie Pialat, Nai An

Production Company: Les films du Worso

Aanaikatti Blues, India

Director: Arun Karthick

Producer: Madhu Mohan

Production Company: Manvasanai Cinema

The Age of Goodbyes, Taiwan, Malaysia

Director: Edmund Yeo

Producer: David Tang, Edmund Yeo, Dennis Lai, Zhao Jin

Production Company: Renaissance Films Limited

Besik. Homecoming, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan

Director: Iskandar Usmonov

Producer: Diana Ashimova, Yerlan Ibragim, Iskandar Usmonov

Production Company: A Team

The Bird Chaser, Mainland China

Director: Zeng Zhi

Producer: Li Tianyu, Joey Zhu Yinying

Production Company: Beijing Pinwu Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.

The Circumciser, The Philippines

Director: Jun Robles Lana

Producer: Perci Intalan, Ferdy Lapuz

Production Company: The IdeaFirst Company

Dead Tide, Malaysia

Director: Kethsvin Chee

Producer: Lee Sinje, Jin Ong

Production Company: Fast Forward Films Sdn Bhd

Drive South Pray West, Thailand

Director: Panu Aree, Kong Rithdee

Producer: Panu Aree

Production Company: Drive South Pray West Pictures

Giant Salamander, Mainland China

Director: Yang Heng

Producer: Yang Heng

Production Company: Xiangxi Meixi Space Culture Media Co.

Gone with the Wind, Mainland China

Director: Zhao Yanming

Producer: Aubrey Zheng Liyan

Production Company: Beijing Daxiwang Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Indigo Boy, Taiwan

Director: Bill Chia

Producer: Yeh Ju-Feng, Ivy Y.H. Chiang

Production Company: Fragrant Creative Integration Co., Ltd.

Innocent Flesh, Mainland China

Director: Lin Yihan

Producer: Li Yuwen, Hattie Yu

Production Company: Vast Vista Films

Lanka, India

Director: Saurav Rai

Producer: Saurav Rai, Ankita Purkayastha

Production Company: Neonate Audio LLP

Mabui, Japan

Director: Fukunaga Takeshi

Producer: Yamaguchi Shin, Eric Nyari

Production Company: KNOCKONWOOD Inc.

Open Fire, Hong Kong

Director: Sze Pak-lam, Lau Wing-tai

Producer: Ivan Wong

Production Company: Scene One Picture Limited

Pivot, Turkey

Director: Melisa nel

Producer: Alara Hamamciolu Bayraktar

Production Company: Vigo Film

Republic of Mahalaxmi Apartment, India

Director: Niladri Mukherjee

Producer: Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Priyankar Patra

Production Company: For Films

See You There, Mainland China, Hong Kong

Director: Wong Yi-kwan

Producer: Wang Hongwei, Song Dafa

Production Company: Beijing Density Blue Film and Television Company

Seoulers, South Korea, USA

Director: Hee Young Pyun, Jiajun Oscar Zhang

Producer: Heejung Oh, Huang Yue, Christine Shen

Production Company: Seesaw Pictures

Somatization, Mainland China

Director: Sun Xiao

Producer: Wang Hongwei, Song Dafa, Lyu Hang

Production Company: Beijing Granary Film Culture Co., Ltd.

Something in the Way, Hong Kong

Director: Fan Ka-chun

Producer: Lam Suk-yin

Production Company: LOUDPROVISION

A Stranger at My Door, Hong Kong, Mainland China

Director: Zheng Lu Xinyuan

Producer: Stanley Kwan Kam-pang

Production Company: N/A

Waves Under the Sea, Macau, Hong Kong, Mainland China

Director: Chan Sileong

Producer: Chan Hing-kai, Robin Yung

Production Company: N/A

YELLOW, Japan

Director: Yamaura Miyoh

Producer: Kore-eda Hirokazu, Ohinata Jun

Production Company: BUNBUKU