AND FROM THIS COMMITTEE...ANOTHER COMMITTEE

KOFIC, Korea's film commission, is the gold standard for Asian countries looking to help out their film industries, and Hong Kong filmmakers have been gagging to get back to the cash-rich old days and revive their much-reduced industry. And so...a committee was formed.

There was already the relatively useless Film Services Advisory Committee, but last year an emergency task force was thrown together and it came up with the idea for the Film Development Committee. Yesterday, the HKSAR Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, announced the eleven members of the FDC:

Jack So – Deputy chairman and group managing director of PCCW
Chan Wing-mei – Director of exhibitor Newport Entertainment
Felix Fong – Solicitor and vice-chairman of the Liquor Licensing Board
Crucindo Hung – General manager of distributor Delon International
Bill Kong – Executive director of Edko Films
Terry Lai – CEO of distributor-exhibitor Intercontinental Group
Peter Lam – Chairman of Media Asia Group
John Sham – Executive secretary of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers
Nansun Shi – Executive director of Film Workshop
Suen Kwok-lam – Executive director of Henderson Land
Raymond Wong – Chairman of Mandarin Entertainment

The goal of the FDC? To study and develop a plan for a film committee. That's right: this isn't the organization filmmakers have been begging for for the last six or seven years. This is a committee to study how to put together that committee.