The Hong Kong New Wave is a filmmaking movement that began in the late 1970s and continued through the 1980s and 90s, which shaped contemporary Hong Kong cinema and is still hugely influential today. It encompasses an incredibly rich, exciting, and diverse body of work, and launched the careers of directors such as Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, and Tsui Hark. 

This panel discussion draws on the perspectives and expertise of speakers from academic, and film industry backgrounds, who work closely with Hong Kong cinema. It will provide attendees a deeper understanding of this often mentioned, but rarely explored cinematic movement, covering its emergence, key figures and their works, the relationship with the Hong Kong studio system and TV industry as well as the Taiwanese and mainland film industries, connections with other global cinematic movements, and its influence and legacy.

Moderator:

Chris Berry is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London, where he teaches and researches cinemas of the Sinosphere. 

Speakers:

James Mudge is the Festival Director of Focus Hong Kong and Chinese Visual Festival, and has been screening and releasing Hong Kong films around the UK for over 15 years, working with the British Film Institute, the Glasgow Film Theatre, and other organisations. He is a well-known international film critic and the Head Writer for the popular Asian cinema website easternKicks.com, specialising in Hong Kong cinema, and regularly gives talks at industry events around the world. James is also a film producer and writer working between the east and west, and is the owner of The Next Day, a UK-based film production, sales, communications and exhibition company.

Dr Ruby Cheung is Associate Professor in Film Studies at the University of Southampton. Ruby’s research and publications focus primarily on East Asian cinemas. She is an internationally recognised specialist in the study of contemporary Hong Kong cinema, Chinese-language film industries, as well as film festivals. Ruby was the Winner of the Best Monograph Award of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) in 2024 for her single-authored monograph Hong Kong’s New Indie Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). She is the author of New Hong Kong Cinema: Transition to Becoming Chinese in 21st-Century East Asia (Berghahn Books, 2016).

Victor Fan is Reader in Film and Media Philosophy, King’s College London and a film festival consultant and moderator. He is the author of Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), Extraterritoriality: Locating Hong Kong Cinema and Media (Edinburg University Press, 2019), and Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy through Buddhism (University of Minnesota Press, 2022).