Festival Archive
The 28th ifva Festival
 
After the unsettling three years, the world is finally recovering. Dormant creative ideas are at the verge of an insane explosion, awaiting to be ignited.
 
Short films, animations, media artworks for five categories from different Asian countries and regions together with those from Hong Kong talents were received. Together with the VR works for the VR Special Prize empowered by Meta, finalists are responding to not only struggles of life and death, but also heart-lifting daily episodes.
 
Media arts exhibition "CINEMA 2.0: Illuminating Vacuum" re-examines the complex relation of how the screen serves as a medium in the real world. Time-limited Pop-up VR Cinema will be presenting international and Hong Kong's award-winning VR works, "We Need to Talk about VR" Conversations will feature talks by foreign and local creatives to discuss the different aspects of VR as a new narrative method. Solo exhibition of Jess Lau, awardee of the 27th ifva Media Art Category Gold Award, reconstructs the memories of the city and moving bodies through a collection of new and old media artworks. Works by participants of "All About Us", the media education programme for ethnic minority youth will continue to celebrate diversity.
 
The 27th ifva Festival
 
In this time of pandemic fatigue and depression, a happy ending has never seemed so distant. May we sneak around on impulse, leap into the realm of the unknown, and be brave enough to see what’s going to happen next.
 
Entrants from different Asian countries and regions were received. Together with short films, animations and media artworks from Hong Kong talents, they have made spontaneous responses to intertwining issues under the new normal, such as staying alive and death, separation and reunion, memories and reality.
 
Media arts exhibition CINEMA 2.0: Illuminating Vacuum re-examines the complex relation of how the screen serves as a medium in the real world. Solo exhibition of Lo Lai-lai Natalie, awardee of the 26th ifva Media Art Category Gold Award, explores the conflicts and wrestlings among humans and nature through a collection of new media artworks. For the Chroma 11 Creative Sharing and VR Preview Session, director Tsang Tsui-shan will be sharing alongside her creative team on the collaborations among art forms and how technology has enlightened the project. Hong Kong Animators, Assemble! Roundtable invites Hong Kong animators from different generations to look into the past and give shapes to the possible future, and open up a new horizon for Hong Kong animation.
 
The 26th ifva Festival

 

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.

Entrants from 26 different Asian countries and regions were received. In terms of short films, animations and media artworks, various cross-cultural issues ranging from livelihood, gender to politics were depicted. While the pandemic remains severe, moving images become the indispensable work of art for creative talents to express and record the moment.
 
Media art exhibition Cinema 2.0:Counter Visions departs from the visual-driven way of experiencing media artworks, imagining differently the relationships between the eye and the media. Solo exhibition of Chris Cheung(h0nh1m), awardee of the 25th ifva Media Art Category Special Mention, features installation pieces to bring the struggle between technology and human memories into discussion.
 
Two master classes focus on moving images and music: multi-award winning composer Peter Kam will talk about film music motifs and visual narrative; music video director Welby Chung will extend his conversation with music producer Edward Chan on the culture of pop music and music video. Two sessions of online People Cinema will showcase early works by Taiwanese animator Joe Hsieh and film director John Hsu respectively, with both of them being Golden Horse winners and ifva awardees. Ethnic minority students from “All About Us” and director Ryan Chan produced short film The Poem of Pakistan in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the education programme, with the film being an honest depiction of local ethnic minority youth.
 
The 25th ifva Festival

 

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.

The 24th ifva Festival

 

There is a demon in each creative talent’s heart, and only through perseverance in creation that they can deal with it. This year ifva continues to present works of bravery from different talents.
 
Cinema is perhaps the modern vehicle for myths. Media arts exhibition “CINEMA 2.0: Acrylic Dreams” creates a dream-like realm that explore, with different sensibilities and aesthetics, what myth is in the future. At the same venue, works by finalists of the Media Art Category of the ifva Awards are exhibited. These media art works re-examine the organic relationships between humans and their surrounding environment and even the entire universe.
 
Entries of the Animation Category continue to push the boundaries of the particular genre. Short films, on the other hand, each demonstrates a unique perspective to see our daily life and rest of the world. The new “Filmorphosis” series aims to recognise professional filmmakers who are ready to shine but not getting the spotlight otherwise. The inaugural programme features ifva alumnus Wong Fei-pang who also created the trailer for this year’s ifva Festival. Yang Li-chou, Taiwan filmmaker who is among the jury this year, is bringing with him, besides his award-winning documentary, wisdom that he will share at an artist talk and mentoring sessions.
 
Films may be enjoyed elsewhere other than the theatre, such as under the starry sky. All are welcome to join the open-air screening of On Trial, featuring the late megastars Leslie Cheung and Danny Chan. Besides, Works from “Jockey Club ifva Everywhere – 48 Hour Film Challenge” will be screened at the Festival. Also showcase of an ifva’s initiative, works by participants of “All About Us” that offers media education to ethnic minority youth are screened at the Festival. Short films that went to Europe and America under the “HONG KONG SHORT FILM: NEW ACTION EXPRESS” initiative will be returning to Hong Kong for local audience to enjoy all at once as well.
 
The 23rd ifva Festival

 

ifva is, and has always been, a platform for all creative talents to manifest their creativity, which is never distant and inaccessible.

 
The festival will be unveiled by the media arts exhibition “CINEMA 2.0: Dark Mirrors”, which starts with the face that every person possesses and delves into an exploration into the relationship between cinema and human portraits. At the same venue, works by finalists of the Media Art Category of the ifva Awards will be exhibited, covering ordinary topics in extraordinary expressions, pushing the boundaries of the media employed.
 
The Animation Category, receiving entries from Asia for the first time, proves to be equally creative. For short films in other categories, even the scales of production are much smaller than any blockbuster, they demonstrate a creativity akin to the DIY theme of this year’s trailer.
 
The jurors of the ifva Awards are, without exceptions, exceptional creative talents. Taiwanese director Tom Lin will be attending the Festival to share with audience his works and experiences. Local independent filmmaker Fruit Chan, known for low-budget but high-quality productions, made the acclaimed Little Cheung, and the film is selected for Jockey Club ifva Everywhere – People Cinema.
 
Jockey Club ifva Everywhere includes other programmes, such as the 48 Hour Film Challenge that squeezed the creative juice out of the contestants with a tight deadline. These works will be screened in a theatrical setting for the first time. Also showcase of ifva’s initiative, “All About Us” that offers media education to ethnic minority youths, will have the participants’ works shown at the Festival. Short films that went to France under the “HONG KONG SHORT FILM: NEW ACTION EXPRESS” initiative will be returning to Hong Kong for local audience to enjoy all at once during the ifvaFestival as well.
 
Creativity is never out of reach, as long as you look for it.
 

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.

 
“CINEMA 2.0: The Phantom Machine” media art exhibition explores cinema as a media and its relationships with memory and temporality, with works that might be considered as experiments to resist the passage of time. At the same spot works from the Media Art Category of the ifva Awards will be presented.
 
Creative experiments need a solid foundation of knowledge and vision, and a global horizon helps to lay that. This year ifva collaborates with Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and Singapore Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film to bring forth “Home and Mobility”. Taiwanese director Shen Ko-shang is also bringing his shorts to share with Hong Kong audience.
 
ifva is dedicated to nurture the next generation to become daring in experiments with images, through programmes such as “All About Us”. The Festival is showing films from the project, as well as those from “HONG KONG SHORT FILM: NEW ACTION EXPRESS”.
 
The “48-hour Film Challenge” under Jockey Club ifva Everywhere is filled with experimental spirits. Eight teams courageously joined the experiment of pushing the boundary of film production. These shorts will be screened again at the Festival as well.
 
The 21st ifva Festival

 

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!

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The 20th ifva Festival

 

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.

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The 19th ifva Festival

 

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!

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The 18th ifva Festival

 

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

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The 17th ifva Festival

 

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 Festival

 

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 festival

 

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 Festival

 

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 Festival

 

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 festival

 

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 Festival

 

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.