MUMBAI: Following the launch last year in Beijing of the first Motion Picture Association Film Production Workshop to be held in China and the Asia-Pacific region, from 11-13 June, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) will host three filmmaking workshops aimed at helping encourage and refine the skills of filmmakers and film students in Hong Kong.

The MPA Film Production Workshops will provide up-and-coming filmmakers and film students with hands-on practical knowledge of feature film production through intensive lectures, case-study analysis and exercises.

Organized with the support of Time Warner, Apple Computer, Swire Beverages and Hong Kong’s Intellectual Property Department, the Workshops are being offered free of charge to invited filmmakers and film students, with emphasis on marketing and the US independent production model oriented toward international distribution.

“One of the most successful Hollywood films of the past year was The Departed, which of course is a remake of the superb Hong Kong trilogy Infernal Affairs. And with Chinese films increasingly popular around the world, the influence on Hollywood of Chinese filmmakers, and in particular, Hong Kong filmmakers, is undeniable,” said Motion Picture Association senior vice president and regional director, Asia-Pacific Mike Ellis.

“The MPA’s goal in organizing these workshops is to help to nurture the flame of creativity in China and Hong Kong, a flame that on occasion has seemed in danger of being blown out by the typhoon winds of piracy. Not only do filmmakers have to overcome the challenges of obtaining financing and lining up distribution, but also they must overcome the wholesale theft of their creative product,” he added.

The MPA Film Production Workshop Program, established in 1990, has provided a strong foundation for hundreds of participants in Latin America. The expansion of the program last year to China has been aimed at providing the emerging generation of Chinese filmmakers with hands-on practical knowledge of feature film production through intensive lectures, case-study analysis and exercises.