Celebrity couple and producers Liza Diño and Ice Seguerra are taking their co-directed film to the international stage as Funeral Flowers has been selected for the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).
In a post shared by their production company Fire and Ice Media, the team announced that the film, written and directed by Liza and co-directed by Ice, was chosen as part of the HKIFF Industry Project Market.
“Written and directed by Liza Diño, co-directed by Ice Seguerra, and produced by Krisma Fajardo, 'Funeral Flowers' has been selected as part of the In-Development projects at the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s Industry Project Market,” they said.
Representing the Philippines, the project will be showcased from March 17 to 19 at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, running alongside the 30th Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART).
“Happening alongside the 30th Hong Kong FILMART, the selection spotlights compelling narratives and diverse cultural perspectives from across the region. Congratulations to the creative team behind Funeral Flowers. Wishing you a successful and inspiring run at HKIFF!” the caption went.
In a separate post, Liza shared how deeply personal the film is to her.
“Grief doesn’t always arrive as tears.
Sometimes it arrives as control.
As silence.
And sometimes — as a film,” Liza first wrote.
Liza explained that she created Funeral Flowers to express emotions she was unable to articulate when her father passed away: “I made 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 because there were things I couldn’t say when my father died. Because the wake felt more like a performance than a goodbye.”
She also revealed that it took nearly two years before she felt ready to share the story she wrote herself.
“It took me almost two years to find the distance to tell this story with clarity and to make the quiet decision to forgive. Funeral Flowers is the most personal thing I’ve ever made. After almost two years, I’m ready to let it go,” she added.
The film is produced by Krisma Fajardo and was selected from 414 submissions spanning 38 countries and regions, with Asian projects comprising the majority of entries.
According to Variety, the selected projects, which are currently in scriptwriting and financing stages, will be presented as part of the Industry Project Market.
Aside from ‘Funeral Flowers,’ other entries also include include 131 by Stanley Kwan and Sasha Chuk; Vincci Cheuk’s 38.83; Mama Mia Let Me Go! by Cheung Wai-yu and Peter Yam; Guo Yu-tian’s Forgetting She Is She; Sanju Surendran’s Fishers of Men; Xu Jianming’s Have a Good Trip; Emetjan Memet’s The Flower Seller; and A Drop in the Sea by Khir-Din Grid and Zhang Fan for Paris-based director Xiao Baer.
The lineup also features Life Is Yours by Emma Kawawada, produced by Takahashi Naoya of Toei Company and Eiko Mizuno-Gray; My Phantom by Story Chen Jianying, produced by Li Xiaoyuan; Fujita Naoya’s The Funeral March; Yuan Yuan’s debut feature Heading South; Tan Ce Ding’s Somewhere in the South, produced by Anthony Chen.
It also has Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi’s Stuck Like Babies; Uchiyama Takuya’s adaptation of Ryohei Machiya’s novel The Blue Breaks; and Jiang Xiaoxuan’s Vulnerable Observer, produced by Zhao Ziyang.