The Hong Kong International Film Festival has revealed a strong line-up of local titles for this year edition, which opens on March 21.

Clara Law’s Like A Dream and the world premiere of Ivy Ho’s Crossing Hennessy will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), while two further films from Hong Kong directors will close the event.

Like A Dream, a China-Taiwan co-production starring Daniel Wu and Chinese actress Yuan Quan, was nominated for nine awards at last year’s Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, although it came away from the ceremony empty-handed. Crossing Hennessy, starring Jacky Cheung and Chinese actress Tang Wei, is produced by Hong Kong-based Irresistible Films.

HKIFF, which runs March 21-April 6, has already announced that gay love story Amphetamine, directed by Hong Kong indie film-maker Scud, and Heiward Mak’s Ex will close the event.

Hong Kong film-makers also feature strongly in other sections of the festival, including gala screenings of Dante Lam’s Fire Of Conscience and Pang Ho-cheung’s Love In A Puff, reflecting the current mini-revival in Hong Kong cinema. Hong Kong’s Film Development Council also announced today that local production volume increased by 30% to 70 films in 2009, and is expected to increase further in 2010.

HKIFF will also feature gala screenings of mainland director Wang Quanan’s Apart Together, which recently opened the Berlin film festival; Doze Niu’s gangster drama Monga, currently a huge hit in the director’s native Taiwan; Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, and a newly restored version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.

The festival will also feature tributes and retrospectives to film-makers including Krzysztof Zanussi, Theo Angelopoulos, Shimazu Yasujiro, India’s Guru Dutt and the Philippines’ Raymond Red. There will also be a Bruce Lee retrospective, marking the 70th anniversary of the late star’s birth, which will screen nine of his films from his debut as a 10-year-old in The Kid to The Game Of Death which he was filming when he died.

In total, the festival will screen 23 world premieres and 38 Asian premieres, including Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer.

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