Jeronimo Cruz
COM 3563-002
The Hong Kong International Film Festival
With recent World-Events marking what could be the biggest news of 2020, it is safe to
say that Hong Kong has shifted from being the main topic in World News to being cast aside
until further progression of the year.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival was established in 1977. What started as a
festival turned into a highly-popular entertainment event for the city, managing to grow year
after year. This festival, which started before the end of the United Kingdom administration,
must now face China and go through new changes and power shifts within.

The festival’s achievements cannot be undermined; after all, the cultural value it has
added is testament to its own success. The way it inspires the rest of the world through its
films makes the festival’s value a recent interest for studies. While it is difficult to know
why film festivals are created (perhaps political reasons as stated in the article) it still
cannot be explained why it is adopted by countries, and while there might be a different
number of agendas behind all this, the film festival still classes with Hong Kong’s
colonial past.

Great emphasis is placed on the influence the festival’s program has towards procommunism, often steering away from pro-communism filmmakers. Because of this,
Chinese authorities retaliate, and although the festival organizers are met with threats and
demands, China can still affect them.

The Hong Kong Special administrative Region ,(HKSAR) after being transferred to
China, is now being caught up in a political incident. The popular film festival as always,
is trying to attract more diverse films from all over the world and at times, shows banned
mainland Chinese Films, which the public see as “problematic.”
The colonial past of Hong Kong paved way to the famous film festival that now faces a
global economy. Its legacy and its future are now in political hands.