The five selected filmmakers (clockwise): Tatiana Huezo, Johnny Ma, Yosep Anggi Noen, Martín Rejtman, Francisca Alegría

48th International Film Festival Rotterdam

23 January - 3 February 2019

Rotterdam, 4 July 2018

The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is proud to announce the 2018 selection of its HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme. Five promising projects from Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, China and Chile have each been awarded a contribution of €52,000 through their European co-producers from Germany, the Netherlands, France and Denmark. The selection includes debut projects as well as projects by filmmakers more advanced in their career.

Marit van den Elshout, head of IFFR PRO: “Through the HBF+Europe programme, which is supported by the EU’s Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, we are enabled to forge a strong relationship between European co-producers and the rest of the world. We’ve selected five excellent-looking projects from Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, China and Chile. These projects are well on their way in terms of development and will soon start their production phase alongside a Europeanco-producer. We’re excited to see the result of these collaborative efforts on-screen in the near future.”

The HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support selection includes the following projects:

The first feature-length fiction film of Mexican filmmaker Tatiana Huezo, Noche de fuego, shows life in a town at war as seen through the eyes of three young girls on the path to adolescence. Huezo is known for her two award-winning documentaries El lugar más pequeño (2011) and Tempestad (2016). Noche de Fuego is produced by Pimienta Films (Mexico) and co-produced by Jim Stark and the HBF+Europe grant recipient Match Factory Productions (Germany).

La práctica is Argentinian filmmaker Martín Rejtman’s seventh feature film and was previously supported by the HBF Script and Project Development Scheme in 2017. It’s a dramatic comedy of characters and situations, following an Argentine yoga teacher whose life is turned upside down by a series of unfortunate events. Rejtman’s first feature film, Rapado (1992) also received HBF support, as did his Los guantes mágicos (2004) and his most recent feature Dos disparos (2014). La práctica is produced by Forastero (Chile) and La Unión de los Ríos (Argentina), and co-produced by Interior XIII (Mexico), Pandora Film (Germany) and The Film Kitchen (Netherlands), the latter of which receives the HBF+Europe grant.

After Peculiar Vacation and Other Illnesses, which was previously supported by the HBF in 2012, Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen is once again selected with his third fiction feature: The Science of Fictions. The film recounts the story of Siman, a mute man who is a living witness of a big fraud about man’s landing on the moon. Within his silence, he tries to convince others of what he saw. The Science of Fictions is produced by Angka Fortuna Sinema (Indonesia) and co-produced by Andolfi (France), who receives the HBF grant, and Astro Shaw (Malaysia).

To Live to Sing is the second feature-length film by Chinese filmmaker Johnny Ma, whose debut Old Stone premiered at the Berlinale in 2016. To Live to Sing is about Zhao Li, the owner of a small traditional Chinese opera company in the suburbs of Chendgu, who is facing the imminent destruction of her theatre and neighbourhood and has to fight against bureaucracy. The project was part of CineMart in 2018 and is produced by Image X Productions (China) and co-produced by House on Fire (France).

Agonizing animals foretell the future of humans as a mother returns from the dead to help heal her family’s wounds in La vaca que cantó una canción sobre el futuroby Chilean filmmaker Francisca Alegría. This feature film debut was previously selected for CineMart 2017 and BoostNL 2018 and is produced by Jirafa (Chile) and co-produced by Cinema Defacto (France), Bananeira Films (Brazil) and Snowglobe (Denmark), the latter of which is receiving the HBF grant.

HBF+Europe is the international co-production programme of IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund. The programme is designed to provide financial support to European producers serving as minority co-producers on high-quality feature films by talented filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe.

Read more on the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme.

HBF+Europe is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme of the European Union

The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) provides financial support to remarkable feature films by innovative and talented filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. This year, the HBF celebrates its 30th anniversary. Since the fund’s establishment in 1988, more than 1,100 projects have received support. Each year, a rich harvest of films supported by the HBF is presented at IFFR and at various major festivals around the world.