Berlinale World Cinema Fund:
Latest Jury decisions and WCF-Spotlight in South Africa

At the 12th session of the World Cinema Fund (WCF) jury on July 4, three new film projects were selected for production funding.

Since its establishment in October 2004, the WCF has awarded production and distribution funding to a total of 73 projects chosen from 1275 submissions from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central and South East Asia, and the Caucasus. All of the WCF films completed so far have screened in cinemas and/or in the programmes of renowned international film festivals and are proof of the international success of the initiative – as well as the Palme d’or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and the award by the the Spanish "Festival de Cine de Huesca" for the WCFs commitment to cultural diversity, understanding and the support of film production in many regions around the world.

Latest Funding Decisions

The WCF jury – film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), programme coordinator of Swiss Television Alberto Chollet (Switzerland), dramaturge Alby James (England), as well as WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno – made their selection from 110 submissions from a total of 42 countries. They awarded funds totalling 130,000 euros to:

Production funding:

Death for Sale, director: Faouzi Ben Saidi (Morocco), producer: Agora Film, Morocco. Feature film.
Funding: 30,000 €

The Prize, director: Paula Markovitch (Argentina), producer: Kung Works, Mexico. Feature film.
Funding: 50,000 €

I’am Going To Change My Name, director: Maria Saakyan (Armenia), producer: Anniko Films, Armenia.
Feature film. Funding: 50,000 €

Submission deadline for the next round of funding: August 5, 2010
For further information, go to www.berlinale.de

WCF-Spotlight in July on the Film Festival in Durban, South Africa

In 2007, the event series World Cinema Fund-Spotlight was created in cooperation with the Goethe Institute. Since the series's inception, selected WCF-funded films have been presented at WCF-Spotlights in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Peru, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, Armenia, Syria and the Philippines.
The next WCF-Spotlight will take place at the 31st Durban International Film Festival (July 22 – August 1, 2010). Films scheduled to be shown include the winner of the 2009 Berlinale Golden Bear, La teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa and Gigante by Adrián Biniez. In addition to the film programme, there will be a WCF-Spotlight Case Study on Shirley Adams, the multiple award-winning film by South African director Oliver Hermanus.
The panel "Africa in Focus: Accessing the Funds" will provide the WCF and other international funding institutions an opportunity to introduce themselves to African filmmakers and producers in Durban.

The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival in cooperation with the Goethe Institute.