The Hong Kong Film industry is celebrating its centennial. The very first cinemagraph was shown in the Hong Kong city hall on April 26, 1897.  The first Hong Kong-made film was reportedly "Stealing a Roast Duck," a comedic short produced in 1909 by Jewish-American producer Benjamin Brodsky and starring Lai Pak-hoi. However, controversy surrounds the film's claim because there are no extant copies. Knowledge of the film's existence comes from only once source: filmmaker Moon Kwan who told the film historian Yu Mo-wan in the 1960s that he had seen it in California in 1917 along with "Zhuangzi Tests His Wife" (1913), generally accepted as Hong Kong's first narrative film (pictured left). From this uncertain start, the Hong Kong film industry blossomed into the third most important center for film production in the world after Hollywood and Bollywood.

The Hong Kong film industry is an inextricable part of Hong Kong culture. There are currently 47 cinemas with 182 screens in Hong Kong. The ticket sales for this year's 33rd annual Hong Kong International Film Festival also sold out very quickly. In conjunction with the HKIFF, the Hong Kong Film Archive is hosting a retrospective exhibition and screening program celebrating one of the great Hong Kong filmmakers: In the Name of Love: the Films of Evan Yang. Evan Yang created the Hong Kong classics "Mambo Girl" (1957) and "Sun, Moon and Star" (1961).