Norris Wong, 2012 Master of Fine Arts graduate of the Academy of Film (AF) of the School of Communication, won the championship in the Higher Education Institution Group of the fourth First Feature Film Initiative (FFFI) with her film proposal My Prince Edward. She has been awarded HK$3.25 million in funding from the Film Development Fund to bring her winning commercial feature film project to the big screen.

Set in Golden Plaza, a mall well-known for budget wedding supplies in Prince Edward, the film centres on the story between Li Fang and Edward, both of whom work at Golden Plaza and have been dating each other for seven years. Their friends believe that Edward is Li Fang’s prince charming and a wedding will happen sooner or later. However, Li Fang has an unrevealed secret—she cannot get married.

A longtime resident of Prince Edward, Norris is amused by the story of Prince Edward VIII, who abdicated his throne to marry a divorced lady. Other than that, the cheap and glitzy wedding supplies on offer in Golden Plaza provided great inspiration for her film. “To me, Golden Plaza is like Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, where a lot of intriguing and fascinating stories take place.” Eventually, Norris pieced together these different ideas into a Prince Edward-based narrative and became the third HKBU alumni to have won the FFFI competition. She is grateful for the Academy of Film, CreateHK and the adjudicators of FFFI for their appreciation and recognition of her film project.

Norris is now working closely with film veterans Mr Chan Hing-kai and Mr O Sing-pui, who will be the producers of her film. They were also the producers of Weeds on Fire, a film directed by Mr Steve Chan, 2012 graduate of the Academy of Film, who won the inaugural FFFI competition. Last year, 2015 graduate Miss Oliver Chan was awarded government funding for her film Still Human, which is currently under production.

FFFI is hosted by Create Hong Kong of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau to identify new talents through a competition of screenplay and production proposals. FFFI, which takes the form of a competition, accepts entries in two categories, namely the Higher Education Institution Group and the Professional Group. The winning teams receive funding from the Film Development Fund to produce, shoot and distribute their first commercial feature film.