In its 3rd edition, UK based film festival Odyssey: a Chinese cinema season celebrates “Global Sustainability” as its main theme this year, presented by NGO UK-China Film Collab. Responding to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the festival programme will include 5 main strands comprising both online & offline screenings. They include “JOURNEY”, “EQUALITY”, “BIODIVERSITY”, “ENVIRONMENT” and “URBAN DEVELOPMENT”.
In addition, the “Filmmaker in Focus” section this year will pay tribute to outstanding and dynamic filmmakers from Hong Kong. Two exceptional artists have been included in this year’s festival, producer, actress and singer Josie Ho, as well as actor, director, and producer Stephen Chow.
CITY OF HONOUR: HONG KONG
Creative Industries
Hong Kong’s creative industries features a broad spectrum of areas spanning art and culture, design, media, digital marketing, advertising, entertainment, film, music, gaming, eSports, multimedia and more. As Asia’s creative hub, international fairs and events such as Art Basel attract hundreds of international and local galleries annually.
Watch out for our development in the following sub-sectors:
Art and Culture, Design－Initiatives such as the West Kowloon Cultural District, Tai Kwun, PMQ, BODW (Business of Design Week) and the recently revamped HKMoA (Hong Kong Museum of Art) have taken art and culture to the next level. The region is now one of the largest export markets for design services with networks of well-established supply chains and enhanced inter-cities collaboration opportunities in the Greater Bay Area.
Media and Entertainment－Hong Kong is a prime regional location for media companies including news agencies, TV broadcasters, OTT platforms, content creators and more. A liberal media environment with excellent communication networks allow companies to reliably transmit and receive information at low costs and high cellular speeds enable the effective delivery of rich digital content.
Digital Marketing and Multimedia－The sector is composed of a variety of digital businesses ranging from digital entertainment, eSports, digital marketing, multimedia design, creative technologies in the creative industries and more. The city’s world-class internet connectivity provides an excellent online and mobile platform for digital marketers and the highly developed consumer and financial market make it the ideal testing ground for marketing concepts and techniques.
ODYSSEY 2023 OPENING FILM: FINDING BLISS: FIRE AND ICE (THE DIRECTORS’ CUT)
UK PREMIERE
Hong Kong producer and actress Josie Ho’s passion for music and documentary making inspired her to create Finding Bliss: Fire and Ice (The Directors’ Cut), a documentary filmed in Iceland, the northernmost country on Earth, which also gave birth to the peculiarity of going through near national bankruptcy and simultaneously claiming the top position on the worldwide happiness index. This roadshow-therapy-experiment in a film concept was developed by Josie herself, co-directed by Dee Lam and Kim Chan.
Odyssey 2023 recognises its efforts in contributing to the debate on “Global Sustainability” and therefore sees it as an important work to be acknowledged and promoted.
The documentary received its International Premiere last year at Udine’s Far East Film Festival. It will appear in the UK for the first time as Odyssey 2023’s Opening Film on 26th May at the Battersea Power Station in London.
OPENING FILM SPONSOR
ABOUT ODYSSEY 2023
Cinema is where people connect.
60+ films, masterclasses, 10 discussion panels and exclusive Q&As. Odyssey is the biggest annual film festival in the UK, bridging curious audience with Greater China and overseas Chinese communities. The theme for 2023 is ‘Global Sustainability’.
Presented by UK-China Film Collab (UCFC)
Festival Date: 26 May-30 June 2023
Format: Offline in Person & Online via Shift 72
Festival Website: odysseychinesecinema.uk
Instagram & Twitter Handle: @odysseyccs
Hashtags: #globalsustainability #odyssey2023 #ukchinafilm #peace
