Hong Khaou

Cambodian-British film director and screenwriter (born 1975)

Hong Khaou
Born	(1975-10-22) 22 October 1975 (age 48) Democratic Kampuchea (Now Cambodia)
Alma mater	University for the Creative Arts
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	2005–present
Notable work	Lilting

Hong Khaou (born 22 October 1975) is a Cambodian-British film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his debut feature film, Lilting, and the short films Summer and Spring.^[1]

Early life

Khaou was born in Cambodia to Chinese-Cambodian parents, the youngest sibling of four children: Linh Khaou, Nick Khaou [1], Thai Khaou and then himself. He was a few months old when he and his family fled to Vietnam after the Fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge.^[2] When he was eight years old, his family migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1980s as political refugees.^[3]^[4]

Education

Khaou studied BA (Hons) Film Production at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham, formerly the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, graduating in 1997.^[5]

Career

Khaou's short film Spring played at both the Sundance Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011,^[6] with his previous short Summer also having premiered at Berlin in 2006.^[7]

His debut feature film Lilting was produced under the Film London micro-budget scheme Microwave,^[8] and was released on 8 August 2014 in the United Kingdom by distributors Artificial Eye.^[9]

He is the recipient of the 2014 Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award for his upcoming feature film Monsoon.^[10]

For BBC television, in 2021 Khaou directed four episodes of season 2 of Baptiste. In 2023, he was announced as director of Mr Loverman, also for BBC television, an adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo's novel Girl, Woman, Other starring Lennie James.^[11]

Filmography

Short films

2005: Waiting for Movement
2006: Summer
2011: Spring

Feature film

2014: Lilting
2019: Monsoon

Television

2021: Baptiste
2024: Mr Loverman

References

^ "Short Film Promotion Scheme Awardee", British Council. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ Wight, Emily. "Cambodian Brits? Yes, they do exist". phnompenhpost.com. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
^ "Filmmaker's Forum: Hong Khaou On The Emotional Journey of Bringing 'Lilting' To Sundance". Archived 28 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Indiewire, 30 January 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ Matheou, Demetrios (29 June 2019). "'Monsoon': Karlovy Vary Review". Screen. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
^ "Lilting: Film graduate to release debut theatrical feature August 8th", University for the Creative Arts. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ "London In Berlin (2011)" Archived 15 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Film London, 9 February 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ "London In Berlin (2006)" Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Film London, 10 February 2006. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ "Lilting Overview". Archived 17 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Microwave, Film London. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ "Lilting" Archived 23 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Artificial Eye. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ Khatchatourian, Maane (21 January 2014). "Sundance Institute and Mahindra Choose 4 Filmmakers for Global Prizes". Variety. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^ Goldbart, Max (6 June 2023). "'Mr Loverman': Lennie James To Lead BBC Adaptation Of 'Girl, Woman, Other' Scribe Bernardine Evaristo's Seventh Novel". Deadline. Retrieved 7 June 2023.