The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has selected twenty-seven film projects that receive grants for script development, digital production, postproduction, distribution or workshops. In its Fall 2009 selection, the Fund gives 385 thousand Euro to projects from nineteen countries. The selection includes new films by acclaimed filmmakers such as Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Edwin and many first time filmmakers. (See full list below)
Six of the eight projects select...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Iwana Chronis to lead the festival's Hubert Bals Fund. Chronis will take the position of Fund Manager from June 1, 2009. She takes over from Bianca Taal, who led the fund from 2007 until March 2009, when she left the IFFR to work for the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam.
Iwana Chronis (1977) has extensive working experience in combining culture and international development. She studied Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the Uni...
For its 38th edition, the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 will present 43 world premieres as well as 35 international and 34 European premieres of feature length films. A strong year for Eastern European film is led by ROOM AND A HALF, a fictional biopic about poet Joseph Brodsky by Andrey Khrzhanovsky; MORPHIA, Alexei Balabanov’s latest film, based on a M. Bulgakov adaptation by the late Sergei Bodrov Jr. and acclaimed Armenian director Harutyun Khachatryan’s BORDER. Throughout t...
The Hubert Bals Fund Award has been given to WASHINGTON by Andro Sakvarelidze & Giga Chkheidze (Georgia) as Best Project out of twelve presented at the 2nd DAB Co-Production Forum (July 15-17). The Forum is part of the Yerevan International Film Festival (July 13-20) in Armenia. The Hubert Bals Fund Award, aimed to support the filmmakers in developing their project, comes with a prize money of Euro 5,000. The DAB Regional Co-Production Forum is organized by the Golden Apricot Fund for Cinema Dev...
The Hubert Bals Fund of the Rotterdam film festival announces financial contributions to 27 film projects for a total amount of 385,000 Euro. One of the winners, TONY MANERO by Pablo Larraín, is selected for the Directors’ Fortnight 2008. It brings the total of Rotterdam-backed titles in Cannes to sixteen. This Spring, Hubert Bals Fund contributions will go to filmmakers in seventeen countries. Among them are maestro Lav Diaz (Philippines), upcoming talent Edwin (Indonesia), about to make his...
In its feature film selection, the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam will include fifty world premieres, thirty international premieres and twenty-five European premieres. International sales agents to bring world and international premieres to Rotterdam include Fortissimo, Memento, Wide Management, Trust, Match Factory and newly formed Elle Driver. Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund adds an enticing harvest of 22 new films to the festival. All of these are nominated for the newly installed...
The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), Rotterdam’s fund designed to support films from the South, has announced financial contributions to 28 film projects in 18 countries for a total amount of 435,000 Euro. These include new films by acclaimed independent filmmakers Wang Bing, Paz Encina, Bahman Ghobadi and Lisandro Alonso, as well as many projects by first time filmmakers. An expected twenty completed films supported by the HBF, will be selected for the upcoming 37th International Film Festival Rotter...
The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has selected four film projects to receive support in its ‘digital production’ category. Liu Jiayin and Wang Bing (both from China), Paz Encina (Paraguay) and Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico) receive grants to produce their low budget digital projects. The other categories, including script development and postproduction grants, will be announced in two weeks. Wang Bing’s CAI YOU RI JI (THE JOURNEY OF CRUDE OIL) documents in non...
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, principal financier of the Hubert Bals Fund, wants the Rotterdam film festival’s fund to continue its activities. Initially the Ministry rejected the fund’s subsidy application for 2009-2012, causing a direct threat to the fund’s existence. Maintaining its strong presence in Cannes, the Rotterdam film festival has seven films linked to the Hubert Bals Fund and CineMart in Cannes festival sections. >From the Official Competition, 4 months, 3 Weeks a...
The world premiere of La antena by Esteban Sapir from Argentina opens, Wednesday January 24, the 36th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Sapir’s film, supported by Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund, is screening in the festival’s Tiger Awards Competition. La antena is one of nineteen new Hubert Bals Fund supported films, including eight world premieres, in Official Selection. Festival Director Sandra den Hamer: “La antena is one of next season's most lovingly crafted and st...
Wednesday, November 22---A financial assistance fund that has helped several dozen documentary films from developing countries get made over the past 10 years is having its future status debated during the upcoming International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), the largest showcase of international documentaries on the festival circuit.
The Jan Vrijman Fund, founded by IDFA in 1998, has provided financial funding to 36 projects from 29 countries, investing a total sum of over US $5...
CineMart and Hubert Bals Fund linked titles selected for Cannes 2004Eight films linked to either or both IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund and CineMart have made it into the various Cannes 2004 programmes. This Cannes edition seven CineMart Projects have been selected and four films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Rotterdam supported films in Official Competition are LA NINA SANTA by Lucrecia Martel, TROPICAL MALADY by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and NOBODY KNOWS by Kore-Eda Hirokazu. The International F...
