Francis Ayock

Francis Ayock has been involved in the promotion, exhibition and production of Chinese films in Canada since 1980.

He worked in partnership with Andre Bennett of Cinema Esperanca to program the first Chinese Film Festival of Hong Kong and Taiwanese films at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto in 1989. This was the first Canadian film festival to showcase the talent of art-house master, Wong Kar Wai [In the Mood for Love] in his directorial debut As Tears Go By.

In 1993, Francis programmed a retrospective of Jacob Cheung’s films in Toronto, showcasing Mr. Cheung’s award-winning Cageman.  In 1996, he acted as a consultant to the promotion of Jackie Chan’s film Rumble in the Bronx, which premiered at the Golden Classic Cinema, Toronto, co-sponsored by the Canadian Film Centre and the Golden Harvest Entertainment Group.   In the same year, Francis worked on the promotion of the first Vietnamese Film Tears of Pearl which was released in Toronto.

In 1996, Francis worked as a consultant with Odeon Films in promoting Clara Law’s Floating Life, which became a box office success in both Vancouver and Toronto.

In 1998, he worked as a consultant for the Fantasia Film Festival, held at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. Francis acted as Chinese Media Coordinator and was responsible for chaperoning Vincent Zhao (Chiu Man Cheuk), the Chinese Martial Arts superstar in his media engagements in Toronto.

In 1999, Francis worked as a consultant on the set design of  Corruptor,  starring Chow Yun Fat and Mark Walhberg.

In 2003, he was a consultant to TVA Films in the promotion of Chen Kaige’s film Together for its Canadian release.

Francis has provided consultation, research, promotion and publicity advice to the Toronto International Film Festival since 1990.  He worked closely with its late renowned programmer, David Overbey, in researching and selecting Asian films for screening at TIFF.