HAF Unveils Exciting 'In Development' Projects from Top Producers

HKIFF Industry has announced the 17 projects selected for the In Development section of this year’s Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), including new projects produced by Singapore’s Anthony Chen, Hong Kong’s Stanley Kwan and Japan’s Eiko Mizuno-Gray. Chen is producing Malaysian project Somewhere In The South, directed by Tan Ce Ding, about an aimless young man who gets caught up in a political campaign in a small Malaysian town. Kwan is reteaming with emerging director Sasha Chuk on drama 131, about two masseuses and a construction worker moving between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. More from Deadline 'Say My Name', 'Her First Taste' Win HKIFF Industry WIP Awards Hong Kong Film Fest Industry Director Talks Asian Animation Boom & Support For Sophomore Features HKIFF Industry Adds Animation & Indonesian Sections To 2025 Line-Up Loaded Films’ Mizuno-Gray, who produced Cannes 2025 competition title Renoir, is working with Japan’s Toei Company on Life Is Yours from emerging director Emma Kawawada (My Small Land). The film narrates the revenge story of an elderly cleaner who plans to reclaim her stolen land at a ski resort in Niseko. Other Hong Kong projects in the line-up include Vincci Cheuk’s intergenerational comedy 38.83, a co-production with Japan; Cheung Wai-yu’s comedy drama Mama Mia Let Me Go!; and Guo Yu-tian’s Forgetting She Is She, a story of conflicted identities and twisted love. The line-up also includes Malayalam absurdist parable Fishers Of Men, from Sanju Surendran (If On A Winter’s Night), about a vegetarian banker who develops an obsession with fish; Funeral Flowers, the feature debut of Liza Diño and Ice Seguerra, about a politician’s daughter confronting estranged siblings and mistresses during her father’s wake; Paris-based Xiao Baer’s A Drop In The Sea, about an entrepreneurial Chinese woman travelling to Algeria for her brother’s funeral; and Emetjan Memet’s Xinjiang-set The Flower Seller, exploring the inner world of a depressed man whose whimsical encounters with a flower seller reignite his will to live. HAF is taking place March 17-19 as part of HKIFF Industry, running alongside Hong Kong Filmart (March 17-20), at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. HKIFF Industry will also be announcing additional In Development projects, focusing on genre and animation, as well as Work-in-Progress projects, in coming weeks. HAF IN DEVELOPMENT 2026: *First Narrative Feature Projects 131 (Hong Kong) Director: Sasha Chuk Producer: Stanley Kwan Kam-pang Production Company: The Flow of Words 38.83 (Hong Kong, Japan) Director: Vincci Cheuk Producer: Koga Shunsuke Production Company: 2882 Prod Co The Blue Breaks (Japan) Director: Uchiyama Takuya Producer: Satoh Naomi Production Company: Differentia A Drop In The Sea (China, Algeria, France)* Director: Xiao Baer Producers: Khir-Din Grid, Zhang Fan Production Company: Nouvelle Toile, Bifun Pictures Fishers Of Men (India) Director: Sanju Surendran Producers: Pramod Sankar, Rajeev Ravi, Kiran Kesav Production Company: Cloud Door Films The Flower Seller (China) Director: Emetjan Memet Producer: Wang Hongwei, Derek Zhang Production Company: Wuhan Yidapai Culture Media Co Forgetting She Is She (Hong Kong)* Director: Guo Yu-tian Producer: Chan Hing-kai Production Company: People’s Productions Funeral Flowers (Philippines)* Directors: Liza Diño, Ice Seguerra Producer: Krisma Fajardo Production Company: Fire & Ice Media The Funeral March (Japan, China) Director: Fujita Naoya Producers: Shiina Yasushi, Aiken Zou, Zou Lin, Fujita Kanako Production Company: Y’s Ltd, Ahaverse Have A Good Trip (China)* Director: Xu Jianming Producer: Bi Guangming Production Company: Zhanyangfan Pictures (Hangzhou) Co Heading South (China)* Director: Yuan Yuan Producer: Wang Jing Production Company: TBC Life Is Yours (Japan) Director: Emma Kawawada Producer: Takahashi Naoya, Eiko Mizuno-Gray Production Company: Toei, Loaded Films Mama Mia Let Me Go! (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan)* Director: Cheung Wai-yu Producer: Peter Yam Production Company: 70 Plus Production Company My Phantom (China) Director: Story Chen Jianying Producers: Li Xiaoyuan Production Company: Beijing Yingxi Culture Media Co Somewhere In The South (Malaysia)* Director: Tan Ce Ding Producers: Anthony Chen, Edward Lim, Yap Khai Soon Production Company: Giraffe Pictures Stuck Like Babies (Zholdogu Bala) (Kyrgyzstan) Director: Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi Producers: Veronica Rhyme, Fernanda Renno, Florence Stern Production Company: Kyrgyzfilm Vulnerable Observer (Hong Kong, China, Malaysia) Director: Jiang Xiaoxuan Producers: Zhao Ziyang Production Company: Huniche Pictures Best of Deadline The Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Global Box Office The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Global Box Office Everything We Know About Taylor Sheridan's 'The Madison' So Far