The First Feature Film Initiative (; FFFI) is a scheme of the Hong Kong government, organised by Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and supported by the Film Development Council, to nurture talents for the film industry. It is a competition on screenplay and production proposals, and the winning teams receive funding from the Film Development Fund to make their first feature films.
The competition is divided into Higher Education Institutions Group (HEIG) and Professional Group (PG), the former recommended by higher education institutions or member institutions of the Vocational Training CouncilEach of the following institutions can recommend two teams: The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the City University of Hong Kong, the Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Lee Wai Lee), Hong Kong Design Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Chu Hai College of Higher Education. The Savannah College of Art and Design (Hong Kong) was eligible for recommending teams until the 6th award. and the latter without quota. Each group awards up to three winners; prior to 2020, HEIG awarded up to two winners and PG at most one. For a team to be eligible, the directors must not have shot any commercial film with a running time of 80 minutes or longer as a director, co-director or executive director; the producers must have participated in the production of at least two films publicly exhibited in Hong Kong in the past 20 years in the capacity of a presenter or producer.
Inaugurated in 2013, the initiative has awarded 18 films and ten have been released publicly.
Funding The winning teams receive full funding from the Film Development Fund in the production of their films. The amounts of the funding are as follows: Awards 1st (2013) 2 million 5 million 2nd - 5th (2016-2019) 3.25 million 5.5 million 6th (2020- ) 5 million 8 million
Winners
Awards Group English Title Chinese Title Director Release Date Box office (HK$) 1st (2013) PG Opus 1Released as Somewhere Beyond the Mist 藍天白雲 Cheung King-wai 771,424 HEIG Mad World1st FFFI Winners 一念無明 Wong Chun 16,923,985 Weeds on FireThe 1st First Feature Film Initiative Winners: Weeds on Fire 點五步 Steve Chan Chi-fat4,678,142 2nd (2016) PG Love@The SquareReleased as Apart 戀@廣埸Released as 散後Chan Chit-manHong Kong Independent Film Festival HEIG In Your DreamReleased as In Your Dreams 以青春的名義愛你 Released as 以青春的名義 Tam Wai-ching475,274 3rd (2017) PG G Affairs G殺 Lee Cheuk-pan HEIG Still Human 淪落人 Oliver Siu-kuen Chan19,811,169 2019 年香港電影市道整體情況4th (2018) PGElisa's Day4th FFFI Winners: Elisa's Day滄海遺愛Released as 遺愛Alan Fung HEIGHand-rolled Cigarette手捲煙 Chan Kin-longMy Prince Edward 金都 Norris Wong5th (2019) PG A Light Never Goes Out 燈火闌珊Anastasia Tsang Hin-LingIn production HEIGTime Still Turns the Pages年少日記Nick CheukIn production The Dinner過時·過節Released as 陽Eric Tsang Hing-wen 24 November 20226th (2020) PGLove Lies我談的那場戀愛Ho Miu-keiLost Love流水落花Ka Sing-fung 1 March 2023 HEIGFly Me to the Moon但願人長久Sasha ChukBlossoms Under Somewhere寄了一整個春天Riley YipGamer Girls電競女孩聯盟Veronica BassettoSophie Yang
Notes
References
External links First Feature Film Initiative