As Hong Kong films taking the spotlight at this year's 62nd Venice International Film Festival, a cocktail reception was held on 27th August to celebrate such great success of Hong Kong filmmakers. Mr. Henry Tang, the Financial Secretary of HKSAR, was invited to give a speech in which he acknowledged that the implementation of CEPA last year has further enhanced the cooperation between Hong Kong and Mainland filmmakers.

In his speech, Mr. Tang wished that through the synergy of capitals, human resources and technology, the quality of Hong Kong and Mainland films could be improved significantly, and hence become more competitive in the international market, allowing Hong Kong to further secure its role as Asia's film financing and technology exchange center.

"I am especially glad that Everlasting Regret, directed by Stanley Kwan Kam-pang, is nominated for the Golden Lion, the Venice International Film Festival 's top award. While Initial D, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, will be screened in the non-competition section, Tsui Hark's Seven Swords and Peter Chan Ho-sun's Perhaps Love will respectively be the opening and closing films of the festival. In the history of the three greatest European film festivals, it has never happened before that Hong Kong productions are selected as both the opening and closing films. This is the first time. This is something with great historical implication. It signifies that Hong Kong films are now internationally renowned. This is the fruit of the everlasting effort by the local filmmakers," said Mr. Tang who also emphasized that the above four films are products of the collaboration between Hong Kong and Mainland, indicating that such trend has great competitive advantages.

In addition, Mr. Tang also specifically mentioned the importance of intellectual property right protection for the healthy development of the film industry. "The film industry is widely known as the dream industry, in which creativity is the key to success. In order to encourage authentic works, creativity must be respected and intellectual property rights protected. We must provide the filmmakers with such environment. The HKSAR puts a high priority in protecting intellectual property rights. Efforts have been made in various aspects including legislation, law enforcement and education. Recently, we have also put forward a draft proposal for improving the protection system of intellectual property right. We aim at creating a better environment for developing Hong Kong into a model of knowledge-based economy, which would be beneficial to people from every social aspect," said Mr. Tang.

(hkfilmart September 2, 2005)