IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund announces Spring 2012 Selections

International Film Festival Rotterdam

PRESS RELEASE 12 June 2012

IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund announces Spring 2012 Selections

The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has selected nineteen film projects that receive grants for script development, digital production, postproduction or workshops. In its Spring 2012 selection round, the Fund gives 260,000 Euro to projects from fifteen Asian, African, Latin-American and Eastern European countries. (See full list below)

In this selection round, the Fund welcomes promising first or second time feature film projects by Song Fang, Huang Ji (both China), Gurvinder Singh (India), Caroline Kamya (Uganda), Ognjen Glavonic (Serbia), Sebastián Hofmann (Mexico) and Eduardo Nunes (Brazil).
Supporting more experienced filmmakers, the Fund is glad to select projects from, among others, Pablo Stoll (Uruguay), Aditya Assarat (Thailand) and Tariq Teguia (Algeria).
Furthermore, the selection round includes 5,000 Euro prize money for the Hubert Bals Fund Award, to be handed out to the most promising fiction project at the upcoming Durban FilmMart (20-23 July 2012), and a grant for the next Colón Workshop for Latin American filmmakers, partner organization of the Rotterdam Lab.

Postproduction
When finished in time, the films receiving HBF postproduction grants are expected to screen at the 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
After her short film GOODBYE (2009, awarded at Cannes’ Cinefondation), Chinese filmmaker Song Fang makes her feature debut with MEMORIES LOOK AT ME, a strikingly observed portrait of her Chinese family life.
Short filmmaker, visual artist and distinguished film editor Sebastián Hofmann (Mexico) writes and directs his first feature film HALLEY, a contemporary gothic story that casts a compassionate look at the life of a zombie.
After ROME RATHER THAN YOU (which premiered 2006 in Venice) and INLAND, Tariq Teguia (Algeria) is working on his third feature film IBN BATTUTA that follows a journalist on his investigative journey throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The project previously received a script development grant from the Hubert Bals Fund.

Digital production
This round, digital production support goes to acclaimed filmmakers Yang Heng (China) and Riri Riza (Indonesia). Yang’s previous works are BETELNUT (New Currents Award in Busan and Hivos Tiger Award competitor in 2010) and SUN SPOTS (also supported by the Hubert Bals Fund). In his LAKE AUGUST, he continues to portrait young adults’ life in his home province. Experienced film maker, producer and writer Riza (a.o. ELIANA, ELIANA, 2002) situates his new film ATAMBUA 39° CELCIUS among a family separated from their relatives following the independence of the state of Eastern Timor in 2002.

Script development
The ten grants for script development support both upcoming and experienced filmmakers. Huang Ji (China) works on FOOLISH BIRD, the second installment of the trilogy she started with her feature debut and Hivos Tiger Award-winning EGG AND STONE.
Ognjen Glavonic (Serbia) writes his first feature film THE LOAD. Set in Serbia during the NATO bombings in 1999, the film follows the driver of a freeze truck. He does not want to know what the load is, but the cargo slowly becomes his burden.
Alex Piperno (Uruguay) prepares his first feature project WINDOW BOY WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HAVE A SUBMARINE, in which a ship crew member discovers a solitary girl behind a mysterious door.
Caroline Kamya (Uganda) works on her second feature film HOT COMB in which two school girls from different backgrounds become close. Her debut feature IMANI premiered in Berlin.
Furthermore, the Fund supports the script development of new projects by two experienced filmmakers: Pablo Stoll (Uruguay) whose ‘3’ was launched at CineMart and received its premiere this year in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, writes and produces his next project SILVER SHADOW; Aditya Assarat (Thailand), Hivos Tiger Award winner for WONDERFUL TOWN, prepares THE WHITE BUFFALO, equally presented at this year’s CineMart.


The line up of the IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund Spring 2012 Selection Round in full:

Post-production funding or final-financing
HALLEY; Sebastián Hofmann; Mexico
IBN BATTUTA; Tariq Teguia; Algeria
PECULIAR VACATION AND OTHER ILLNESSES; Yosep Anggi Noen; Indonesia
POOR FOLK; Midi Z; Myanmar
MEMORIES LOOK AT ME; Song Fang; China

Digital production
ATAMBUA 39° CELCIUS; Riri Riza; Indonesia
LAKE AUGUST; Yang Heng; China

Script and projectdevelopment
FOOLISH BIRD; Huang Ji; China
THE FOURTH DIRECTION; Gurvinder Singh; India
A HAPPY DEATH; Eduardo Nunes; Brazil
HOT COMB; Caroline Kamya; Uganda
LEAVE IT FOR TOMORROW, FOR NIGHT HAS FALLEN; Jet Leyco; Philippines
THE LOAD; Ognjen Glavonic; Serbia
THE SIGBIN CHRONICLES; Joanna Vasquez Arong; Philippines
SILVER SHADOW; Pablo Stoll; Uruguay
THE WHITE BUFFALO; Aditya Assarat; Thailand
WINDOW BOY WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HAVE A SUBMARINE; Alex Piperno; Uruguay

Workshops
Durban FilmMart; South Africa, Hubert Bals Fund Award
XIII Colón Workshop for Latin American Filmmakers; Argentina

(End of list)

Profile of the Hubert Bals Fund
The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), along with the CineMart, is part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The 42nd IFFR will take place January 23 – February 3, 2013. Year-round news on IFFR, HBF and CineMart can be found on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com.

The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature-length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to completion. The Hubert Bals Fund provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects. Although the Fund looks closely at the financial aspects of a project, the decisive factors remain its content and artistic value. Since the Fund started in 1989, hundreds of projects from independent filmmakers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe have received support. Approximately 80% of these projects have been realized or are currently in production. Every year, the IFFR screens completed films supported by the Fund.

The Hubert Bals Fund is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MEDIA Mundus, Dutch non-governmental development organization Hivos Culture Foundation, the DOEN Foundation and the Dioraphte Foundation and Lions Club Rotterdam: L’Esprit du Temps.

Grants and selection rounds
Annually, the Hubert Bals Fund is able to make individual grants of up to Euro 10,000 for script and project development, Euro 20,000 for digital production, Euro 30,000 for post-production, Euro 15,000 towards distribution costs in the country of origin or Euro 10,000 for special projects such as workshops. Selection rounds take place twice a year and have application deadlines on March 1 and August 1.

Hubert Bals Fund-supported films in IFFR and on DVD/VOD
Most of the films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund throughout the year are screened during the International Film Festival Rotterdam in attendance of the filmmaker. Subsequently, part of the HBF-supported films is released by the IFFR on DVD or VOD, available on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com (VOD for viewers in the Benelux only).

(End of press release)

Note to the editor:
For more press information, please contact:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet, [email protected], tel 31.10.8909090