The role of the Film Archive is to acquire, preserve, catalogue and document Hong Kong films and related materials. With facilities that include a cinema, an exhibition hall, a resource centre and four temperature-controlled collection stores, the Film Archive also organises retrospective screenings, thematic exhibitions, symposiums and seminars on films. The Film Archive attracted over 172 500 visitors in 2016-17.

During the year, four thematic exhibitions were organised: The Great Entertainer: The Heyday of Cinema City, Light and Shadow: Tricks and Treats Workshop-cum-Exhibition, Sketches in Motion: Storyboards of Hong Kong Cinema, and Magic on the Screen: Hong Kong Cinematic Effects.

Children and adults learned basic principles of photography and cinematography at the workshops of the Light and Shadow: Tricks and Treats Workshop-cum-Exhibition.

The exhibition Magic on the Screen: Hong Kong Cinematic Effects gave visitors the chance to experience some of the fun of special effects in film.

To date, the Film Archive has acquired 13 713 film titles and 1 228 484 film-related materials, mainly through donations. Acquisitions in 2016-17 included pre-print materials such as picture negatives, digital intermediates, soundtracks, subtitles, inter-picture negatives, inter-positives, film prints, footage, magnetic tapes and trailers. Major donations included 16mm, 17.5mm and 35mm pre-print materials from 103 titles dating from 1968 to 2008 by First Distributors (HK) Limited, and 17.5mm and 35mm pre-print materials from 128 titles dating from 1990 to 2012 and 204 film-related materials (such as digital betacam tapes, betacam SP tapes, posters and documents) by Universe Films Distribution Company Limited. The Film Archive also continued to duplicate film scripts and censor documents of Hong Kong films from the 1950s and 1960s from the New York State Archives.

Apart from donating pre-print materials, Universe Films Distribution Company Limited also donated film-related materials such as betacam tapes to the Hong Kong Film Archive.

In 2016-17, the Film Archive published a book titled The Essence of Entertainment: Cinema City’s Glory Days. It is in Chinese with an English edition in a CD-ROM.

The Film Archive published The Essence of Entertainment: Cinema City’s Glory Days.

The Film Programmes Office works to promote the culture and appreciation of film and the media arts in Hong Kong. In 2016-17, the office organised screening programmes, talks, seminars and workshops on film and media arts topics.

Highlights of the year included the International Children’s Film Carnival 2016, the Chinese Film Panorama 2016 – A Showcase of International Award-winning Films, the 45th French Cinepanorama, Critics’ Choice 2016 – Six Directors in Search of Playwrights, Repertory Cinema 2016 – Andrzej Wajda 90, and an exhibition titled Andrzej Wajda in Hong Kong 2016.

To raise community interest in film, the Film Programmes Office organised an event titled Old Movies, Old Hong Kong – Care for Our Community 2016. This involved a series of film screenings at schools and elderly centres, after which students were able to meet and share ideas with the elderly attendees.

An outreach community programme promoted appreciation of Hong Kong old movies among the elderly and primary students through a screening of The Ten Brothers vs the Sea Monster, a local film from1960.

Other thematic programmes curated by the Film Archive included Morning Matinee, Restored Treasures, The Wit and Wisdom of Cinema City, The Writer / Director in Focus III: Mok Hong-si, Cine Memories of the War of National Resistance, Cecilia Lee Fung-sing’s Legendary Rise to Opera Stardom, Good Fortunes Come Rolling In, and Early Cinematic Treasures Rediscovered III.

The LCSD provided venue support to the annual Hong Kong Film Awards Presentation Ceremony, funding and venue support to the Hong Kong Arts Centre for organising the annual ifva (Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia) event, and funding and venue support to the Microwave Company Limited for the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival. These are events that encourage creative, independent productions of short films, videos, animation and media arts, and bring cutting-edge technology from around the world in the form of media arts to Hong Kong.