The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF, Chinese: 香港國際電影節) is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community. The festival is committed to discovering talent, and it is also a major platform to launch films to the Greater China region and Asian market.

Previously operated by Urban Council and Leisure and Cultural Services Department from 1977 to 2001, and Hong Kong Arts Development Council from 2002 to 2004, HKIFF is officially corporatized as an independent, charitable organization – Hong Kong International Film Festival Society Limited, after completing its 28th edition. The Hong Kong Government has continued to subsidize the festival through venue provision and funding for up to 7 million Hong Kong dollars.

Screening over 300 titles from 50 countries in 11 theatres across Hong Kong, the 33rd HKIFF reached an audience of 580,000 people, including 4,500 business executives who attended the Hong Kong Film and Television Market (FILMART). The 34th HKIFF was held from March 21 to April 6, 2010, the last film to be shown being the Hong Kong-made film Amphetamine.

Andrew Lau Wai-Keung (born 4 April 1960) is a Hong Kong cinematographer and filmmaker. Lau began his career in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as a cinematographer to filmmakers such as Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wong Kar-wai. In the 1990s, Lau decided to have more creative freedom as a cinematographer by becoming a film director and producer. Apart from making films in his native Hong Kong, Lau has also made films in China, Korea and the United States. A highly prolific filmmaker, Lau has made films in a variety of genres, and is most notable in the West for his action and crime films which include the Young and Dangerous film series, and the Infernal Affairs trilogy (the latter co-directed together with Alan Mak).

Andrew Lau was born 4 April 1960, and is one of six siblings. As a child, he was raised in the New Territories of Hong Kong. His father worked as a construction worker on Hong Kong Island. Since his parents did not have time to concentrate on all of their children, Lau had developed an interest in photography. Lau was also a Catholic, and would go to church every week, learning how to play a guitar. As a child and high school student, Lau admits to not liking Hong Kong, since it was a British colony.

Charlotte Rampling, OBE (born Tessa Charlotte Rampling; 5 February 1946) is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English language as well as French and Italian cinema.

Rampling was born in Sturmer, Essex, the daughter of Isabel Anne (née Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Rampling, an Olympic gold medalist and army officer. She attended Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles and St. Hilda's School, a boarding school in Bushey, Hertfordshire, England.

After beginning her career at age 17 in a commercial role and as a model, Rampling's first screen appearance was uncredited as a water skier in Richard Lester's film The Knack ...and How to Get It in 1965, which was followed a year later by the role of Meredith in the film Georgy Girl.

In 1967 Charlotte played the gunfighter Hana Wilde in "The Superlative Seven", an episode of The Avengers. After this, her acting career blossomed in both English and French cinema.

Despite an early flurry of success, she told The Independent, "We weren't happy. It was a nightmare, breaking the rules and all that. Everyone seemed to be having fun, but they were taking so many drugs they wouldn't know it anyway."