Edmund Lee takes an exclusive first look at nine of the festival’s most anticipated titles.

Diva ***
Director Heiward Mak takes her talent for finely observed emotional candour to her third feature, a backstage drama-cum-romance set around our city’s Cantopop ecosystem. While the business’ darker side is exhilaratingly mocked by Chapman To as a callous talent manager, Joey Yung and Mag Lam both give passable performances as pop singers inconvenienced by matters of the heart. Aug 15

Farewell My Queen *****
History trembles distantly in the background of French director Benoît Jacquot’s intimately original take on the early days of the French Revolution, which filters Marie Antoinette’s (Diane Kruger) infatuation with a duchess (Virginie Ledoyen) through the longing gaze of the Queen’s personal reader (Léa Seydoux). This is a sumptuously crafted palace drama of the highest artistic order. Aug 20, Aug 22

George Harrison: Living in the Material World ****
From 1978’s The Last Waltz to 2005’s No Direction Home and 2008’s Shine a Light, Martin Scorsese has long proven himself to be the music documentary filmmaker of our time. It’s with no surprise that his affectionate portrait of George Harrison should so absorbingly celebrate the troubled genius’ career and life, both pre- and post-Fab Four. Aug 25, Aug 27

In Another Country ***
Yet another chatty drama in which chance, infidelity and the capricious nature of the creative type are amusingly contemplated with a triptych narrative, Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s latest reverses the setting of his Paris-set Night and Day (2008), following Isabelle Huppert as her three characters respectively brave broken English during a visit to the seaside town of Mohang. Aug 18

Jiro Dreams of Sushi ****
Not so much a personal profile of Jiro Ono as it is a consummately engrossing portrait of an artist as a legendary chef, this mouth-watering documentary on his three-star Michelin sushi joint Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo offers an entrancing glance on the octogenarian’s relentlessly meticulous pursuit for perfection. Cameos include an octopus in the middle of its 45-minute massage session. Aug 18, Aug 20

Key of Life ****
After the intricately plotted A Stranger of Mine (2005) and After School (2008), Kenji Uchida’s new comedy provides more side-splitting twists along the crisscrossing destinies of its eccentric protagonists: a killer (Teruyuki Kagawa) who’s lost his memory, a failed actor (Masato Sakai) who picks up the amnesiac’s locker key and a single woman (Ryoko Hirosue) who plans to get married in a month. Aug 17, Aug 25

Moonrise Kingdom *****
Could Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) have actually made his best movie to date with this bittersweet romance between a pair of 12-year-olds (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, both excellent) in the 1960s? The customary big names chime in with whimsical supporting roles – but the star of this stylish heart-warmer is unquestionably its infectious sense of hope and innocence. Aug 28

Punch ****
A traditional coming-of-age drama done absolutely right, director Lee Han’s emotionally resonant adaptation of a popular YA novel tells the story of a hot-tempered high school student (Yoo Ah-in) who learns to live with his hunchback father, his estranged Filipino mother and a good-hearted yet unconventional teacher. For that matter, guess which sport the kid will take up to reinvent himself… Aug 19, Aug 23

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet ***
Thirteen renowned French actors are summoned to the funeral of a recently deceased stage director, only to be gradually immersed in a new production of Jean Anouilh’s 1941 play Eurydice. Playfully meta-fictional and unabashedly indulgent, this purported swansong by Alain Resnais is, if not a very exciting film, at least a faultless summation of the great French director’s immensely cerebral oeuvre. Aug 16

Summer International Film Festival 2012 runs from Aug 14-28 at various venues. For programme details, visit hkiff.org.hk. Tickets: 2734 9009; urbtix.hk.