ENTERTAINMENT EXPO 2009 PART 1: ASIAN FILM AWARDS INTERVIEWS.

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As you may know, the Entertainment Expo Hong Kong reunites this year, 9 multimedia events covering a global mix of film, TV, music and digital entertainment:

The Hong Kong International Film & TV Market  / FILMART (March 23 rd-26 th, 2009), The Hong Kong International Film Festival / HKIFF (March 22 nd – April 13 th, 2009), The

Hong Kong Film Awards (April 19 th, 2009), The Asian Film Awards / AFA (March 23 rd, 2009), The [Hong Hong - Asia Film Financing forum /

HAF](http://www.haf.org.hk/haf/) (March 23 rd–25 th, 2009), The Hong Kong Music Fair / HKMF (March 26 th-28 th, 2009) and the HK Top Sales Music Award / IFPI (April 9 th, 2009),

The Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards / IFVA (March 13 th-22 nd) and the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum(March 24 th, 2009).

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Of course, a lot of professionals of the film and music industry from all around the world are attending those events. In my case, I’m officially here as press to cover the FILMART for a French movie magazine, but I also want to cover the other events related to Asian cinema (at least the HKIFFand the AFA – I can’t stay until the Hong Kong Film Awards. Too far…).  

If the concept of Entertainment Expo is great, there is no such thing as an Entertainment Expo press accreditation. For the FILMART, I need a FILMART press badge, for the HKIFF, I need a HKIFF press badge, for the AFA, I need a AFApress pass etc… So it was quite complicated sometimes, since the FILMART press office was in Wanchai, and the HKIFF press office in Kowloon…

Anyway, I arrived in Hong Kong on March 22 nd at 7.30 am, then after the hotel check-in in Wanchai, I had to go to pick my Shinjuku Incident新宿事件ticket (that I bought online a few weeks before) in Mongkok and eat a little bit, then go to Kowloon to pick up my HKIFF press pass, then go back to Wanchai to start the interviews  at 1.45 pm.

That day, I was supposed to have 4 interviews related to the Asian Film Awards (an event organized by the HKIFF), but unhopefully, the one I wanted the most – a 20-minute with Tsui Hark徐克& Nansun Shi施南生about the 25 th anniversary tribute of their company, Film Workshop- was  cancelled because Tsui Hark was in fact, not back in Hong Kong yet. And even if I'm staying in Hong Kong until the end of the HKIFF, I'll not be able to interview Tsui Hark this year because he's already back to China and will stay there until August.Too bad.

So I the interviews I had onMarch 22 nd– 15 minutes each – were with the Chinese opera singer Yu Shaoqun余少群, who was nominated as Best Newcomer (and who won the award one day after) for portraying the young “ Mei Lanfang梅蘭芳”in Chen Kaige陳凱歌’s movie,…

…the Taiwanese filmmaker Wei Te-sheng魏德聖, director of the most successful local film of all time, “ Capen°7海角七號”, who was there to received the Edward Yang New Talent Award,…

…and the young Taiwanese TV star Joe Shen陳喬恩, who was invited to present an award during the ceremony.

On March 23 rd, four other Asian Film Awards interviews were planned for me, but three were cancelled! (AFA nominees Joan Chen陳沖& Jung Woo-sung정우성+ Nicholas Saputra). So the only AFA interview I had that was with the Taiwanese actress Guey Lun-mei桂綸鎂(“ Blue Gate Crossing藍色大門”, “ Secret不能說的·秘密”…) who presented along with Peter Kam金培達, a few hours later, the Best Music Award.

One day after the AFAceremony, on March 24 th, I had two interviews planned, and none cancelled (Yeah!). I was supposed to have a 10-minute little group interview with Japanese actor Motoki Masahiro本木雅弘, but since he won the award of the Best Actor at the AFA for Depatures禮儀師之奏鳴曲(Best Foreign Language Oscar this year), the organizers decided to do just one big press conference with all the media during around 36 minutes (instead of 20 little different interviews within 2 hours), which was a good idea finally.

My last AFA interview, with the Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, who received the Nielsen Box Office Award (a special award for her contribution to Asian films, presented by the Hollywood Reporter), was delayed for a couple of hours but hopefully not cancelled (less than 15 minutes, but it was in English, so no time wasted with translation).

Coming soon: HAF interviews, FILMART interviews, HKIFF Opening(“ The Shinjuku Incident新宿事件” + “ Night & Fog天水圍的夜與霧” Premieres), Asian Film Awards ceremony, HKIFF “ Sniper神鎗手” Premiere, FILMART “ Bodyguards and Assassins十月圍城” press conference, Hong Kong New Action discussion ( John Woo吳宇森, Oliver Stone, Andrew Lau劉偉強, Feng Xiaogang馮小剛), Film Workshop exhibition + retrospective and more…

Frédéric Ambroisine (March 28 th, 2009)