Director Ho Miu Ki and Nick Cheuk attended the post-screening Q&A sessions, where they shared their inspirations and listened to feedback from the Indonesian audience. Ho Miu Ki, director of “Love Lies”, expressed the similarities between the scam and filmmaking: “The team works hard behind the scenes to create something; the story may be fictional, but the emotions it evokes are real. Just like love in the film—if you believe in it, then it is real.” Nick Cheuk, director of “Time Still Turns the Pages”, recalled, “At first, I worried that the heavy themes might affect the child actors’ emotional development, but I later found that they actually detached from their roles more easily than adult actors. They would step out of character as soon as the camera stopped rolling.” He also shared his experiences of tailoring directing approaches to match the personalities of different child actors.

Moreover, the Asian Film Awards Academy introduced the overseas screening of Hong Kong short films for the first time in the festival. The “MADE IN HONG KONG: SHORTS COMPILATION” section featured four selected works: “Overman” and “Mamamoo” by To Chun Him and Frankie Lee, both winners of the inaugural International Film Camp; “I Have Arrived”, by renowned Hong Kong director Yan Yan Mak, recognised at the Los Angeles Independent Shorts Awards; and “Breathe Without Water” by Christy Tse, which won the Silver Award at the Hong Kong Microfilm Awards.