In the ninth selection round of the World Cinema Fund (WCF) on October 25, the WCF drew a positive balance for 2008 and proposed three film projects for production funding.

The WCF jury – film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), programme coordinator of the Swiss Television Alberto Chollet (Switzerland), director of the script programme of the EON Screenwriters' Workshop Alby James (England), as well as WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno – chose between 108 projects submitted from a total of 33 countries and granted funds totalling 160,000 euros. The funding recommendations of the ninth selection round:

Primitive: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,
director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), producer: Kick The Machine Films, Bangkok. Feature film, funding: 60,000 €

Independencia, director: Raya Martin (Philippines), producer: Cinematografica Films, Manila. Feature film, funding: 50,000 €

Bi, Don’t Be Afraid, director: Di Phan Dang (Vietnam), producer: Vietnam Media Corp, Hanoi. Feature film, funding: 50,000 €

Since the founding of the WCF in October 2004, supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, 928 projects have been submitted from 69 countries in the regions that are the focus of the WCF (Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Central Asia; and since summer 2007, South East Asia and the Caucasus). 52 projects have received production or distribution funding so far.
Within just a few years, the World Cinema Fund has established itself as an instrument for cultural funding and intercultural dialogue, as well as for promoting international contacts within the film industry. The WCF enjoys worldwide esteem and all of the funded films completed in the interim have been invited to important international film festivals. Once again, 2008 has been a very successful year for the WCF. Six WCF-films celebrated their world premiere at international film festivals:

International Film Festival Locarno 2008:
Dioses by Josué Méndez (Peru) / Competition
Filmefobia by Kiko Goifman (Brazil) / Filmmakers of the Present

Pusan International Film Festival 2008:
Jermal by Ravi Bharwani (Indonesia) / A Window on Asian Cinema
Songs from the Southern Seas by Marat Sarulu (Kazakhstan)/ A Window on Asian Cinema

Venice Film Festival 2008:
Süt/Milk by Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey) / Competition

Toronto International Film Festival 2008 (in the "Visions" series) and
San Sebastián International Film Festival 2008 (in the Competition):
Pandora´s Box by Yesim Ustaoglu (Turkey)

Pandora´s Box by Yesim Ustaoglu won two awards at the San Sebastián International Film Festival: the Golden Shell for Best Film and the Silver Shell for Best Actress.
Hamaca Paraguaya by Paz Encina (Paraguay) was awarded the Luis Buñuel Prize for Best Ibero - American Film of the Year.

Three WCF-funded films have been selected for the “Global Lens 2009” – programme, a series of ten films. “The Global Film Initiative“, an international non-profit organisation with the mission of promoting cross–cultural understanding through cinema, is compiling this programme every year.

WCF-films in “Global Lens 2009“:
Possible Lives (Las Vidas Posibles) by Sandra Gugliotta (Argentina)
Songs from the Southern Seas by Marat Sarulu (Kazakhstan)
What a Wonderful World by Faouzi Bensaïdi (Morocco)

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.