Hong Kong’s Summer International Film Festival 2026: 10 must-see movies and programmes

As blockbusters like The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Toy Story 5 continue to dominate cinema screens across Hong Kong, adventurous film-goers desperate to escape the incessant downpours can take comfort in the eclectic line-up unveiled for this year’s Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival. This concise seasonal companion to the Hong Kong International Film Festival boasts a focused selection of 37 features. These range from regional premieres of festival highlights to new 4K restorations of Hong Kong classics, including Wong Kar-wai’s Days of Being Wild (1990), Tsui Hark’s wuxia masterpiece The Blade (1995) and Dennis Yu Wan-kwong’s ghoulish delight The Imp (1981). Spotlighted filmmakers include Na Hong-jin, Hong Sang-soo and David Cronenberg, while acclaimed new titles, such as Beth de Araujo’s Sundance Grand Prize winner Josephine, Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love and Ben Wheatley’s small-town shoot-’em-up Normal, make their Hong Kong debuts. Rounding out the programme is an intriguing clutch of animated films from Japan, France, Spain and Portugal. Below are our selections for the best titles and programmes not to be missed at this year’s edition. 1. Hope A decade after his last directorial offering, Korean director Na Hong-jin returns with a star-studded science-fiction action spectacular that has already proved a monster hit on home soil. Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Squid Game breakout Jung Ho-yeon play residents of a remote rural community where a mysterious creature is wreaking havoc on the population. Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell also star. Na’s previous horror feature, The Wailing (2016), will also be screened, with the director there to give a masterclass. 2. Secret in the Box Philip Yung Tsz-kwong turns his attention to another notorious true crime case following the success of Port of Call (2015), Papa (2024) (both of which he directed) and The Sparring Partner (2022) (which he produced). This time his subject is the 1974 Happy Valley cardboard box murder, famed for being the first conviction in Hong Kong achieved solely through forensic evidence. Yung serves as producer for screenwriter and first-time director Frankie Tam Kwong-yuen. The film focuses on the defendant (played by Zhang Songwen), who maintains his innocence, and the policeman (Patrick Tam Yiu-man) who challenges his colleagues over their questionable methods. 3. The Samurai and the Prisoner Better known for his chilling horror movies such as Pulse (2001) and Creepy (2016), veteran Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa takes his first stab at the jidaigeki classical swordplay genre with this lavish adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa’s prize-winning 2021 novel. The enthralling mystery centres on a feudal lord (Masahiro Motoki) whose castle is besieged after he rises up against a local tyrant. Suspecting there is a traitor within his ranks, the samurai turns to a renowned strategist (Masaki Suda) for help, who is being held prisoner within his own dungeon. 4. Parallel Tales Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director behind Oscar-winning dramas A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016), helms his second French-language production after 2013’s The Past. Loosely adapted from Krzysztof Kieslowski’s A Short Film About Love (1988), Parallel Tales tells the story of a struggling author (played by Isabelle Huppert) who spies on her neighbours through a telescope in a desperate bid for inspiration. When she hires a male assistant to help with her daily chores, she soon becomes embroiled in a dangerous and erotically charged situation that challenges the boundaries of reality. 5. Once Upon a Time in Harlem A house party in Harlem during the summer of 1972 provides the setting for this extraordinary documentary, shot by iconic filmmaker William Greaves and completed by his son, David, a decade after the documentarian’s death. Congregating at the home of jazz icon Duke Ellington, dozens of luminaries from African-American art and academic circles speak candidly and sometimes hilariously about their reminiscences of the Harlem Renaissance – a pivotal cultural movement from 50 years earlier. 6. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Hired to direct a bold new reimagining of the classic Lake Miasma teen slasher movies, a queer filmmaker, Kris (Hannah Einbinder), seeks out the franchise’s original scream queen (Gillian Anderson), who lives as a paranoid hermit on the eponymous location of the horror series. As the pair are slowly drawn into an increasingly bizarre psychosexual relationship, trailblazing filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (2024’s I Saw the TV Glow) skewers the entire genre with transgressive revisionist wit. 7. Burn Runaway teen Jurie (Nana Mori) arrives in Kabukicho after fleeing her abusive and fiercely religious parents. In this chaotic and vibrant Tokyo neighbourhood, she falls in with a gang of self-destructive misfits who lead her down a path even more dangerous than the one she left behind. Seven years after dazzling audiences with his audacious debut We Are Little Zombies (2019), director Makoto Nagahisa returns with another stylish and irreverent tale of vulnerable youth, every bit as visually inventive and intoxicating. 8. Ghost in the Cell There is more than a splash of Lam Nai-choi’s notorious Category III (adult) cult classic Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) in the latest foray of Indonesian genre impresario Joko Anwar (2017’s Satan’s Slaves). Blending elements of action and body horror to winning effect, this uproariously grotesque prison thriller sees a group of inmates in a maximum-security facility fall victim to a supernatural serial killer that dispenses with its victims in increasingly elaborate and absurd fashion. The result is an absolute hoot, sure to delight the midnight set. 9. Marilyn Monroe An icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Marilyn Monroe remains one of American cinema’s most recognisable stars. The blonde bombshell, famous for her voluminous lips, curves and husky voice, was also a commendable performer, both in comedies and straight dramas. This year’s Summer IFF is screening new restorations of two of her most acclaimed roles. The hilarious comedy The Seven Year Itch (1955) features her most memorable pose, standing over a New York City subway grate as her white dress is blown upwards. The neo-Western The Misfits (1961), meanwhile, sees Monroe more than hold her own opposite Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable in what would prove to be her final appearance. 10. Hong Sang-soo This year’s Director in Focus is South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, whose quasi-autobiographical body of work deftly blurs the line between fiction and reality, while playfully exploring the limitations and norms of the medium itself. Ten of his early films will be screened, from his 1996 debut The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, which boasts the debut of iconic actor Song Kang-ho, up to 2013’s Our Sunhi. This selection encapsulates his creative output before his partnership with Right Now, Wrong Then actress Kim Min-hee, with whom he has collaborated since that 2015 film. Summer IFF runs from August 19 to 31 at various venues. For full programme details, visit cinefan.hkiff.org.hk. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook

Hong Kong’s Summer International Film Festival 2026: 10 must-see movies and programmes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}This year’s Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival boasts 37 features, from regional premieres to 4K restorations of Hong Kong classics

This year’s Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival boasts 37 features, from regional premieres to 4K restorations of Hong Kong classics