Discover Hong Kong’s Film Heritage: Major Exhibition Showcases 1.3 Million Relics at Heritage Museum

At its 1980s and '90s peak, Hong Kong made more movies than almost anywhere on earth — trailing only Hollywood and Bollywood in global reach. A new exhibition in Sha Tin is built to remind visitors just how big that was, and it has the archive to back it up.

"Hong Kong Film Archive Stories: Treasure Hunting for 25 Years" opened at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum on June 3 and runs through March 29, 2027. It marks the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong Film Archive, the public institution that has spent a quarter-century collecting and restoring the city's screen history. The show pulls from a collection of more than 1.3 million film artefacts.

What's actually on display

The exhibition puts nearly 1,000 items on show, more than 100 of them appearing publicly for the first time. In plain terms: this is the archive opening its vault and showing the public what it has been quietly preserving for 25 years.

Visitors enter through a photo tunnel of Hong Kong stars, then move into displays of vintage costumes, awards trophies and historical trailers charting how the industry grew. A "Hall of Honours" gathers real awards donated by figures from the industry. There are video reflections from filmmakers across generations, and interactive photo spots — including one, "Galaxy Station," that pairs visitors with images of movie stars as they looked at age 25.

Why an international audience cares

Hong Kong cinema isn't a local-only story, and that's the draw here. This is the industry that produced Stephen Chow's comedies, the gritty gangster films that shaped a global genre, and the arthouse work that influenced directors from Hollywood to Seoul. For overseas film fans — a real, searching audience — a curated look at where all that came from has genuine pull.

It also lands at a specific moment. The show is part of Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival 2026, a city-wide effort to package Hong Kong's cultural output as a destination in itself. The archive turning 25 gives that effort a concrete anchor: not a nostalgia trip, but a record of an industry that once punched far above the city's size.

Worth knowing before you go

The exhibition is a long run — nearly ten months — so there's no rush, though the first-time-shown items are the reason to make the trip rather than wait. Free screenings of eight restored Hong Kong film classics accompany the show at the archive's own cinema. For anyone tracking how Hong Kong is trying to reintroduce its golden-age cinema to a new generation, and to the world, this is the centrepiece.