Third Culture Film Festival Returns to Hong Kong
11 September 2026
A decade after the idea first took shape in Hong Kong, New Zealand’s Third Culture Film Festival has returned to the city. The three-day showcase brought together filmmakers and creatives, with an eye on building more connections between Hong Kong and New Zealand.
Ten years ago, Harry Oram was living in Hong Kong when he had an idea for a film festival.
The festival eventually found a home thousands of kilometres away in Tauranga. Last month, it made its way back to where the idea first began.
New Zealand’s Third Culture Film Festival returned to Hong Kong from 28 to 30 August, holding a small, invitation-only showcase at Soho House Hong Kong. (Image Credits - Jake Morton / Third Culture Film Festival)
New Zealand’s Third Culture Film Festival returned to Hong Kong from 28 to 30 August, holding a small, invitation-only showcase at Soho House Hong Kong.
For Oram, who grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in New Zealand, the return brought the two sides of the festival’s story together.
“Hong Kong gave me the idea for Third Culture. New Zealand gave the festival its home and the opportunity to grow,” he said.
“Returning ten years later was about reconnecting those two parts of the story and beginning to explore what the next chapter could look like.”
The Third Culture Film Festival, or TCFF, was first conceived in Hong Kong in 2016. It was later relaunched in Tauranga in 2024, where it has since screened work from filmmakers around the world.
This time, organisers weren’t trying to bring a full-scale festival back to Hong Kong.
Instead, the three-day event was kept small, giving the team a chance to meet people working across Hong Kong’s film and arts scene and see whether there was room to do more together.
New Zealand Consul-General in Hong Kong Peter Lund was among those who attended, alongside filmmakers, artists and other guests from the city’s creative community. (Peter with Harry in the photo - Image Credits - Jake Morton / Third Culture Film Festival)
One idea to come out of the visit is a two-way path for filmmakers: helping New Zealand work find an audience in Hong Kong, while giving Hong Kong filmmakers more opportunities to show their work in New Zealand.
“This first Showcase was deliberately small, but the longer-term opportunity is much bigger,” Oram said.
“We want to create more opportunities for New Zealand filmmakers and creatives to be seen in Hong Kong, while also bringing Hong Kong filmmakers and stories into our New Zealand programme.”
The festival worked with Hong Kong film and animation platform SOOOP to put the showcase together.
SOOOP founder and curator Sophie Colfer, supported by Priyanka Sen, helped shape the Hong Kong side of the programme, bringing local and diasporic voices into the mix.
For Oram, that local involvement mattered.
“It was important that we didn’t simply bring a New Zealand festival into Hong Kong with a programme already decided,” he said.
The trip also sparked conversations that went beyond what appears on a cinema screen.
The team discussed ideas around education, youth programmes, arts participation and ways businesses and cultural organisations in Hong Kong and New Zealand could work together. (Image Credits - Jake Morton / Third Culture Film Festival)
Oram sees film as a useful starting point because making one involves everything from writing and acting to music, photography, animation and digital skills.
“The goal isn’t to tell every young person they should work in film,” he said.
“Creativity can be an incredibly effective way of building confidence, communication, collaboration, storytelling and digital skills.”
The team is now looking at what future events in Hong Kong could look like, but no further programme has been announced.
In the meantime, the festival is heading back home.
The next Third Culture Film Festival will take place in Tauranga in March 2027, with more details about its films and programme to be announced.
“Hong Kong was an important reminder of why Third Culture exists in the first place,” Oram said.
“Now we bring that energy back to New Zealand and begin building the next edition.”
-Asia Media Centre