Steve Chan Chi-fat was born on 16 December 1989 and grew up in Tai Yuen Estate in Tai Po, in Hong Kong's New Territories. A weak student who repeated Primary Four, he later became hooked on online games and took up Goju-ryu karate, finishing third in the boys' 16-17 free sparring at a territory-wide youth karate championship in 2005. Leaving Sam Lok Chow Kam-wai School in 2002, he graduated from Tai Po Government Secondary School in 2007 with 11 points and every subject passed at the HKCEE, also receiving a 'best progress' award from a foundation that year. He studied multimedia design and digital entertainment at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education while gaining experience with a music-video director, and in 2012 graduated in film from the film academy of Baptist University's School of Communication, where he had worked on a senior student's graduation short in 2011. From 2012 to 2013 he was a television programme director at TVB and also took editing, animation and commercials jobs. In 2016 he directed his first feature, Weeds on Fire, a winner of the First Feature Film Initiative (tertiary section) made with a HK$2 million grant from the Film Development Fund and shown at the 40th Hong Kong International Film Festival; the film follows a 1984 Sha Tin youth baseball team, with Liu Kai-chi playing the coach. It earned him a Best New Director nomination at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2017, and in 2018 he received a Baptist University outstanding communication alumnus award. He also made the drama series 3 X 1 (2016) and A Brief Marriage (2017) as producer-director and produced Limited Education (2019), and directed a music video for Eason Chan.
A product of the First Feature Film Initiative, Chan's Weeds on Fire, about a 1984 Sha Tin youth baseball team, showed how a young director on a modest budget could turn local memory into a commercially released feature, and he went on to work in television drama and music videos.
Achievements
- 2016 · Directed his first feature, Weeds on Fire, made with a HK$2 million Film Development Fund grant
- 2017 · Nominated for Best New Director at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards for Weeds on Fire
- 2018 · Received an outstanding communication alumnus award from Baptist University