HK Indie Short Film Award 2025
“Say what you are, not what you would like to be, not what you have to be, just say what you are, and what you are is good enough.” John Cassavetes
With the suspension and budget cut of some important short film competitions in Hong Kong, as well as the invisible red line of the new film censorship rule, which may limit exposure for some promising short films and the recent dispersion of numerous filmmakers worldwirde, we hope to establish a platform through the competition to support aspiring independent filmmakers, giving them a space to publish their works and receive recognition.
Ching Wong
Ching is a London-based film and visual art curator, and writer. She holds an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London. Ching is the Co-Founder and Programming Director of the Hong Kong Film Festival UK, and Co-Founder of Archipelago, a collective of East and Southeast Asian curators working across Asia and Europe. She also serves as a Community Curator at the Migration Museum in London.
Karen Ka Wan Cheung
Producer, curator and researcher
Born and raised in Hong Kong. Graduated from the University of Hong Kong in French and German (BA) and Humboldt in Cultural Studies (MA). During her stay in Berlin, she curated several film programmes (selected): Waves of Freedom (2023, in collaboration with Robert Havemann Stiftung, Stasi Museum and Bundesarchiv) , The _________ H-Ville (Experiments in cinema, New Mexico, 2023). With her cross-disciplinary experiences, she also produces works focuses on feminism, refugee issues and racism (selected): “Ling’s Request” (Animated short, in pre-production), sound installation “Exclave” (2023).
She is now also working as head of communication and marketing at the European Film Academy.
Step C. (Animation Director)
is an award-winning animation director, university lecturer, and illustrator. n her work, she attempts to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality to explore interpersonal relationships. Her work has been exhibited at numerous art fairs and locations worldwide, including M+, Art Basel, Tai Kwun, and Fine Art Asia. In addition to participating in more than 100 international exhibitions, she has received over 30 awards. In 2021, her short film Depths of Night was shortlisted for Best Animated Short Film at the 58th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei.
RJ Li
Artist, Editor
Macau native, currently an art worker living in Taipei.
She was a founding member of Macau Stone Commune and Old Ladies’ Art Space (Ox Warehouse). She has worked in the field of art and culture for many years, mainly engaged in theater, exploring contemporary aesthetics and performance forms, and trying different experimental possibilities. She once worked as an art space coordinator, documentary producer, and also ran a bookstore. She is currently engaged in editing, mainly publishing social and humanities books.
Vincent Chui
Aritistic Director,Ying E Chi
Chan Wai
Writer /Associate professor of filmmaking at the National Taipei University of the Arts.
She was born, raised and educated in Hong Kong. She has been engaged in the screen writing in films, TV series, stage plays and novels for many years, and has published. She has published more than 20 novels and proses. Her novels “拾香紀” won the 5th Hong Kong Chinese Literature Biennial Award, and “弟弟”won the Taiwan Literature Golden Dictionary Award (2023), and many of her short stories and novels have been adapted into film and television works
, the latest work is “小暴力”. Currently,
Step C. (Animation Director)
is an award-winning animation director, university lecturer, and illustrator. n her work, she attempts to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality to explore interpersonal relationships. Her work has been exhibited at numerous art fairs and locations worldwide, including M+, Art Basel, Tai Kwun, and Fine Art Asia. In addition to participating in more than 100 international exhibitions, she has received over 30 awards. In 2021, her short film Depths of Night was shortlisted for Best Animated Short Film at the 58th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei.
RJ Li
Artist, Editor
Macau native, currently an art worker living in Taipei.
She was a founding member of Macau Stone Commune and Old Ladies’ Art Space (Ox Warehouse). She has worked in the field of art and culture for many years, mainly engaged in theater, exploring contemporary aesthetics and performance forms, and trying different experimental possibilities. She once worked as an art space coordinator, documentary producer, and also ran a bookstore. She is currently engaged in editing, mainly publishing social and humanities books.
Sum Lam
A Hong Kong filmmaker who directed the feature films “May You Stay Forever Young “and “The Narrow Road”.
Lim Kah Wai
born in Kuala Lumpur in 1973, studied electrical engineering in Osaka and film directing in Beijing. In 2010 he directed his first film After All These Years. His subsequent films such as Magic and Loss, New World, Fly Me to Minami and Come & Go and others have been screened and won awards at many international film festivals. He is considered a “pan-Asian” filmmaker who shoots his films in different countries with different language casts. No Where, Now Here (2018) and Somewhen Somewhere (2019) ,Everything,Everywhere(2023) were filmed in East Europe. His latest film is a documentary film about the art house cinema in Japan which called “This Magic Moment “(2023).
Download the competition regulations (please download and read carefully before registering): https://shorturl.at/uqMSu
Registration link: https://shorturl.at/HmFmf
expiration date:
January 24, 2025 (Friday)
Awards: Gold Prize 1 winner –
An award certificate, Keep Rolling cash prize US 5,000
Silver Prize 1 winner –
An award certificate and a Keep Rolling cash prize of US 2,000
Keep Rolling Award 2 winners-
Each winner will receive an award certificate and a Keep Rolling cash prize of US 1,000.
Shortlist announcement date: mid-February 2025 (tentative)
Screening of shortlisted works: late February – mid-March 2025 (tentative)
Awards announcement and award date Award date: March 28, 2025 (tentative)
Screening location: to be announced later
Award method: to be announced later
- No age limit applies; only a Hong Kong Permanent Resident identity card is required, regardless of “three stars” or not, no nationality restriction
- Completion in December 2022 or later
- No restrictions on theme, genre and shooting form
- No restriction on language use in dialogue, subtitles in Chinese & English are required.
- Short film length: no more than 30 minutes (including opening and ending credits)
- Each applicant may submit more than 1 work. Works that have participated in other competitions or film festivals, or have won awards in other competitions are also eligible. Applicants need to submit an individual application on each film.
- All personal information on the application form is only for verification and contact purpose, it will be deleted after the competition.
- All entries will be evaluated by jury, which will determine the selection results and awards.
- The applicant must be the sole copyright owner of the work. For student works or works funded by other short film awards/competitions, approval or consensus from the granting school or organisation is required.
- Applicants should own solely the original copyright of the images and music, and should guarantee authorization is granted for any use of film or music excerpts from the third party.
- If false information is submitted or competition rules is violated, the organiser reserves the right to disqualify applicants from entry and, or winning the prize.
*Please carefully review the competition details and rules of the HKindieFA before submitting your entry and completing the registration form.
*These competition rules are subject to the b interpretation, and the organiser reserves the right to make final modifications and clarifications.
Application
- Please fill in the form: forms.gle/VEGpApXxgpktavq2
- Provide your email and phone number for further contact is Mandatory
- Please post your video link on the relevant item in the application form, please set your YouTube or Vimeo link in private or unlisted. The video link should be valid for viewing until 31st March, 2025.
- No revised version will be accepted after your work has been submitted.
Application Deadline:
24th Jan, 2025 (Friday)