2020 is the year of new normal. But if we persevere in such a difficult time, even the rarest flower would bloom in the end.
2019 was a difficult year for all of us. Voices have been echoing throughout the world and Hong Kong.
ifva received over 1,900 entries from more than 40 Asian countries and regions this year. The works from different categories presented in short film, animation and media arts are coincidently inspired by one of the following themes, personal suffering, family issues, social conflicts and wars between countries. With mixed feelings, the participants decided to use films and visual media to reflect the present.
Media Arts Exhibition “CINEMA 2.0: Counter Visions” breaks the stereotypes of primacy of visuality, presenting sensory stimulation works with profound meanings from three artists. They inspire us to reconsider that apart from eyes, there are other senses to perceive different emotions. ifva organises a solo exhibition for Carla Chan, Silver Award winner of the 24th ifva Awards Media Art Category. She uses bricks, iron powder and magnet to create installations which allow us to explore the meaning of destructions and reconstructions.
Filmorphosis keeps introducing artists who are working persistently without a word on their creations. Hand-drawn animator Mak Siu-fung used 50,000 hours of his life to create his favourite animations. We can see how he creates his own animation world by living a focused and regular life. For Master Class, we will host screenings and talks respectively for Yamashita Nobuhiro and Matt Abbiss, two jurors of this year’s ifva Awards. Both of their works seek full potential in simple lives or space. The tensions created in the stories have been well-considered. Director Chan Hon-yan leads the ethnic minority youths who have participated in “All About Us” to produce The Poem of Pakistan, a short film dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the project, depicting the struggle and experience of ethnic minority youths living locally.
ifva is, and has always been, a platform for all creative talents to manifest their creativity, which is never distant and inaccessible.
The 22nd ifva Festival
ifva has provided a laboratory for creative talents. Works which enter the final round are of course the results of numeral trials. The jurors also want to recommend works that have demonstrated their courage and thoughtfulness in manifesting their ideas to the audience.
Participants of the ifva Awards are all carrying sparks of creativity, ignited through their works. For all five categories of the Awards, works that have entered the final round all have their creativity exploding, as you will have a chance to experience at the Festival. For those failing to become finalists but still recommended by our jurors, you still see the fire of creativity burning, equally vigorously.
“Surveillance” seems to be in conflict with “creativity”, but the media art exhibition “CINEMA 2.0 – Surviving the Glass System” will examine how creative practices can be intriguingly connected to surveillance, if not to the extent of being fueled by it.
To pass on the torch of creativity, ifva has been organising various image media education programmes, such as “ifva Young Filmmakers” and “All About Us”. Fruits of these projects, alongside selected works from “HONG KONG SHORT FILMS: NEW ACTION EXPRESS”, will be showcased at the Festival.
The newly launched Jockey Club ifva Everywhere project, exclusively funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, will have some activities featured at this year’s ifva Festival, such as Master Class and Open-air Screening. Don’t miss them!
This year sees the 20th edition of the ifva. For two decades, ifva has committed itself in promoting short films and media arts and in celebrating artistic creativity. A programme that draws on gems in the past and shed light for future appears to be the best commemoration of ifva’s 20th anniversary.
In retrospect, the gold award winning titles are indeed the creme de la creme of ifva’s repertoire. A series of programmes under the umbrella of “Indie is…” will bring these winning titles to different communities in Hong Kong, by screenings at various venues across the city, upholding the “Cultivation” and “Engagement” mission of ifva.
ifva starts with the awards, and many creative talents have indeed debuted their careers at ifva with their works in competition. This year works in competition are equally impressive, not only those by our finalists but also by those not making it to the final but recommended by our jury. Let’s look forward to the new additions to the ifva award-winning collection at the award presentation ceremony.
Apart from the award, ifva has developed meaningful projects one after another, with their fruitful results showcased during the festival. They include “ifva Young Filmmakers”, “All About Us”, “HONG KONG SHORT FILMS: NEW ACTION EXPRESS”, etc.
CINEMA 2.0 has grown with ifva in the recent year. This year “Hard Cinema” will offer a new experience in media arts for all visitors.
Looking forward to the next 20 years, we believe ifva can only become more exciting. But the most important thing is to have you continuing to be part of that excitement.
The 19th ifva Festival has adopted “storytelling” as a theme, we invite Lam Kee-to to curate “storytelling” programmes from the many award-winning titles from the previous editions of the ifva Awards. The Opening Film, You Are the Independent Power of My Eye consists of eight shorts by former ifva winners, many of them like Pang Ho-cheung, Raman Hui and Toe Yuen have become so famous nowadays. Lam also handpicks another nine titles for the “ifva
Storytelling Series” to be screened in two programmes. Adam Wong has risen to fame recently with his The Way We Dance, and he personally selects a short film that has inspired him most – Fireworks by Shunji Iwai – plus other shorts by himself. Apart from meeting the audience, he is also hosting a storytelling workshop. Tan Chui-mui brings with her seven shorts to Hong Kong from Malaysia, and Taiwanese director Arvin Chen will share the stories behind his creations with the audience. As to media arts, we are presenting to you “New Playable Art” on game culture, featuring Tabor Robak and Douglas Wilson ‘s artworks and invites you to share the joy of gaming. The finalist showcases of the ifva Awards are still main attractions – so don’t miss their stories!
As in previous years, the 18th ifva festival will again showcase a specific theme, and this year’s focus is on experimental spirits. The opening films are legendary Hungarian computer animation pioneer Tamas Waliczky’s new work Adventures of Tom Tomiczky and world-renowned Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s CHIRI/Trace. Taking the audience outside of movie theatres, the Japanese creative team Open Reel Ensemble performed a show that combines vintage open reel recorders with modern computer wizardry to create music that pushes the envelope of musical technologies. The Japanese new media artist Daito Manabe has long been a favourite among media art aficionados, and ifva had exhibited his interactive installations, which will surely cause a sensation. At the same time, we featured several computer-generated videos created by Waliczky between 1986 and 2007 alongside with his recent interactive works, taking audiences on a retrospective that almost spans the entire history of new media art. Locally, media artist Ip Yuk-yiu has curated a programme entitled Lost Moments, which gathers the most important experimental films and videos from ifvaover the years, and allows these almost forgotten works a chance to be appreciated anew. Also not to be missed is the main attraction of ifva, the 18th ifva Awards, in which we screened and exhibited finalist works from the various ifva categories
ifva proudly embraces its 17th edition and continues its mission of encouraging hands-on creative practice and inspiring new concepts and ideas. With a history that spanned over 17 years, we have witnessed and facilitated the creation of numerous outstanding local video works.
Besides showcasing award-winning pieces in the various competing categories, ifva host a DocuLab this year with master class to be hosted by renowned film editor CHEN Po-wen, coupled with seminar, workshops and screening programmes, so that the new generation can acquire not only the skill set, but also learn about preproduction strategies and review internationally famed master pieces.
To achieve this, the DocuLab presented a programme of documentary shorts from German director Werner HERZOG. In addition, a fine selection from previous ifva award-winning documentaries was showcased in the Hong Kong International Film Festival – a good reason for yet another round of ifva alumni reunion.
The 16th ifva teamed up with 7-Eleven and invited seven ifva award winners from past years to take part in that year’s ifva greenlab, presenting their new works inspired by everyday life in Hong Kong.ifva introduced a new programme called “Animation Lab” in which we partnered with GOBELINS, l’école de l’image from France to hold a master class and screenings.
Live performance featured Transforma, a new media collective formed by German artists Luke BENNETT, Baris HASSELBACH and Simon KRAHL; as well as a sound performance by YAO Chung-han from Taiwan.
Another internationally renowned artist featured was Ryusuke ITO, who specializes in exploring the spatial concept in expanded cinema. There was an exhibition of his works alongside the finalist works of that year’s Interactive Media Category.
The 15th ifva‘s opening film was Tales from the Golden Age, written and co-directed by Cristian MUNGIU (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) together with four other emerging directors from Romania. The film used black humour to recreate urban legends from the Communist era in that country, and offered a chance to re-examine that unique period, albeit from a slightly off-kilter perspective.
In recent years, the world of animation has produced some of the most innovative works in any audio-visual medium. This edition of ifvafeatured a host of outstanding animations from Latvia, Korea and Japan.
In its 15th year, ifva cast a glance into its past with a retrospective of award-winning and excellent works in the Youth Category of past years.
Additionally, ifva featured some of the most notable short films from the French New Wave as well as Polish shorts from the 1970s that helped usher a new era in film and video art. Last but not least, there was a screening of works from the master class led by Mary STEPHEN, Éric ROHMER’s long-time editor.
The 14th ifva‘s opening film was the Invisibles, an eye-opener to the greatest empathy and compassion, directed by Wim Wenders.
“Moving the Dreams”, showcasing up-and-coming Taiwanese directors, highlighted our affectionate embrace to local culture. The dreamlike sight, sound and vision in “My China Now” and multimedia performances by D-Fuse from the UK gave an imaginative reflection on our urban life, whereas the rhythm of movement pushed boundaries of the frame and body in “Selections of Jumping Frames Dance Video Festival”. Also, this edition of ifva introduced the first-ever animation screening and workshop dedicated to children in Hong Kong.
There were also outstanding works selected from the worldly renowned International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Clemont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and shortlisted works in various categories of the 14th ifva competition.
The 13th ifva invited Germany’s Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, one of the most influential international short film festivals, to lead two programmes based on award-winning films from “A Gleaming Legend of Images”.
This year, ifva‘s “International Panorama” also offered to audiences a wide range of programmes, including “Sight and Sound Peru: Not Only a Resplendent Tropical Landscape”, “SVEMA Films: Ukrainian Shorts”, “Korean Animation: Not Only Tearjerking Soaps”, “Wisut Ponnimit: Dots of Yellow and Green”, etc.
Local electronic music genius HO Shan@PixelToy joined new media artist Daito MANABE to stage an interactive extravaganza of sight and sound too.
The 12th ifva was enriched by its feature of “Short Films from Poland: Heydays of 60 Years”, in which early short works of Polish masters such as Wajda and Kieslowski were premiered in Hong Kong, as well as international award winners.
This year, ifva broadened our horizons by showcasing works of the European short film festivals and international animation festivals.Mirrorball, the huge hit in the 11th ifva, made a comeback with Japanese shorts, animations and MVs too.
Catching up with the hand phone shorts’ hit in China, “Chinese Shorts from Zonbo Media” took audiences on an unusual mainland tour. – What does this paragraph mean?
Last but not least, the 12th ifva also featured narrative works from up and coming Hong Kong and Taiwanese directors. Local veteran media pioneer Makin FUNG also gave a live cinema with [visual x music x body x whatever.]
The 11th ifva introduced a series of programmes exploring and expanding the horizon of the world of light and images in Asian and European short films. This edition of ifva also pioneered a trail linking mobile media, the internet, and theatres for creative concepts by showcasing China’s first series of mobile phone shorts and Japan’s Open Art internet shorts.
Following its goal of Idea, Frame, Vision, and Audio, ifva presented “Idea, Frame, Vision, Audio Everywhere”, a new programme that incorporated remarkable MVs from Asia and other parts of the world and highlighted MVs from indie/alternative music makers.
Expanding the limits of multi-media collaboration, we invited indie music makers to create MVs for live interactive sessions.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of creative media and its evolution from Super 8 to interactive media, ifva and Videotage introduced the special programme “Home Movies – from Super 8 to Interactive Media in 40 years”. To further promote and popularize video creation, YU Lik-wai and Jam YAU shared their HDV/Super 8 creative techniques in the Workshop.
