Boost!-projects selected for CineMart 2012

41st International Film Festival Rotterdam
25 January – 5 February 2012

PRESS RELEASE 28 November 2011

Boost!-projects selected for CineMart 2012

CineMart has announced the first five projects of its 2012 Selection. All five were selected in the Boost! coaching trajectory organized by Hubert Bals Fund, CineMart and Binger Filmlab. The full line up of the CineMart 2012 Selection will be announced by mid-December.

The five Boost!-projects presented at CineMart 2012:

• DJIN by Hawa Essuman (Kenya)
• EL 5 DE TALLERES (THE MIDFIELDER) by Adrian Biniez (Uruguay/Argentina/Germany)
• VLAZNOST VAZDUHA (HUMIDITY) by Nikola Ljuca (Serbia/Germany)
• LOS DOLÁRES DE ARENA (THE SAND DOLLARS) by Laura Amelia Guzmán & Israel Cárdenas (Dominican Republic/Mexico/France)
• JOMO by Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda/Australia)


The film projects by Laura Amelia Guzmán & Israel Cárdenas (Dominican Republic/Mexico) and by Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda) have been added to the three Boost! projects selected earlier this year. During the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam, all will take part in the 29th CineMart (29 January - 1 February 2012), presenting their projects to potential co-financiers. In order to be well prepared for the one-on-one presentations during CineMart, the filmmakers will be trained in pitching their film projects and will be offered consultancy meetings for advice on their meetings.

As of 2011, the Hubert Bals Fund, CineMart and Binger Filmlab have joined forces in organizing a special coaching trajectory for Hubert Bals Fund supported film projects. Each year, five projects selected for HBF Script and Project Development support are offered the opportunity to further develop their project at Binger Filmlab, as part of their Binger On Demand programme. At Binger Filmlab, the filmmakers are offered coaching – based on the specific needs of the project and filmmaker – focused on the further development of their film projects.

Laura Amelia Guzmán (Dominican Republic) and Israel Cárdenas (Mexico) are making their third fiction feature. Their first film COCHOCHIwas screened at IFFR 2008. Their second film JEAN GENTIL was supported by the Hubert Bals Fund and screened during IFFR 2011. At CineMart 2012 they will present their film project LOS DOLÁRES DE ARENA (THE SAND DOLLARS) in which a French man searches for Noéli in the remains of a Dominican town hit by a hurricane,a young local with whom he held an ambiguous relationship based on money, betrayal, paternity and love. The Hubert Bals Fund supported LOS DOLÁRES DE ARENA with a grant for Script and Project Development.

Kivu Ruhorahoza was born and raised in Rwanda. He has worked on various film and TV productions. His short film LES EGARÉS DE L'HÉMISPHÈRE SUD (LOST IN THE SOUTH, 2008) was selected for IFFR 2010. His feature début MATIÈRE GRISE (GREY MATTER), also the first fiction feature by a Rwandan filmmaker produced in his native country portrays a first time filmmaker about to start shooting a film referring to the trauma of the genocide. GREY MATTER has been selected for IFFR 2012’s main section Bright Future.
At CineMart 2012, Ruhorahoza will present his fiction feature project JOMO about young homosexual men in Kenya struggling with a suppressive and religiously suffocating atmosphere and the absence of any backing from the law. JOMO was also supported by the Hubert Bals Fund for script and project development.

(End of press release)

Press information IFFR:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet/Nancy van Oorschot, [email protected], +31 10 8909090

Press information Binger Filmlab:
Daan Gielis, [email protected], +31 20 5609630