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The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has selected twenty-five film projects that receive grants for script development, digital production, postproduction, distribution or workshops. In its Fall 2012 selection round, the Fund gives 330,000 Euro to projects from seventeen Asian, Eastern European, Latin-American and African countries. (See full list below)

From many strong applications for workshop initiatives, the Hubert Bals Fund chose to support the NAAS Training Workshop (Egypt), the Digital Cinema Workshops Series (Morocco) and Cinema Land (Vietnam). The NAAS workshop offers a training and networking program for art house and cine club managers in the MENA region. In Morocco, the Workshop Series aims to increase digital filming skills among young film professionals. Cinema Land offers filmmaking talents expertise and training in the Central-Vietnamese cities of Danang and Hue, where there are no such facilities as yet.

In the distribution category, the Hubert Bals Fund supports the plan to screen acclaimed director Riri Riza’s Atambua 39° Celsius (picture) during open air screenings – the region has no cinemas - within the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, where the film was shot.

Atambua 39° Celsius received Hubert Bals Fund support for digital production earlier this year, recently premiered in competition at the Tokyo IFF and will see its European premiere during IFFR 2013. The film offers a sensitive portrait of refugees from East Timor and of their scattered families.

One of the eleven projects selected in the script development category is Tarde para morir joven (Late To Die Young), second feature film project by Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor. Her very successful début feature film De jueves a domingo (Thursday Till Sunday), also supported in script stage by the Hubert Bals Fund, won a Hivos Tiger Award in Rotterdam and subsequently screened in many film festivals worldwide. Tarde para morir joven tells about members of an isolated community that see their existence threatened by a forest fire.

Also selected for script development support is Teboho Edkins, a promising new talent from South Africa, who prepares his first feature length film Days of Cannibalism. Edkins previously made The Gangster Project, a 55-minute documentary/fiction hybrid that was selected for FID Marseille and IFFR 2012. In Days of Cannibalism, Edkins again uses a clever mix of documentary and fictional elements to focus on the expanding trade relations between China and the African continent.

Milagros Mumenthaler, Golden Leopard-winner for her Hubert Bals Fund-supported first feature film Abrir puertas y ventanas (Back to Stay), has been granted digital production support for Pozo de aire (Air Pocket). This second film, backed again by the ‘Abrir’-team in Argentina and Switzerland, is a more low budget and experimental take on female lead characters and the notion of absence.

When finished in time, the films receiving postproduction grants are expected to screen at the 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam. One of these is Yang Tidak Dibicarakan Ketika Membicarakan Cinta (What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love), second feature film project by Mouly Surya, one the most promising female directors in Indonesia. Her film is a both sensitive and sensual examination of the dynamics among a group of teenagers played by visually and aurally impaired actors.

The harvest of newly finished Hubert Bals Fund-supported films will be screened during the next International Film Festival Rotterdam (23 January – 3 February 2013). The next application deadline for Hubert Bals Fund support is 1 March 2013. All information about the Fund may be found here.

The line up of the IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund Fall 2013 Selection Round in full:

Post-production & final-financing

Noche (Night) / Leonardo Brzezicki / Argentina

O Rio nos pretence (Rio Belongs to Us) / Ricardo Pretti / Brazil

O Uivo da Gaita (The Harmonica’s Howl) / Bruno Safadi / Brazil

On Mother’s Head / Kusuma Widjaja Putu / Indonesia

Yang Tidak Dibicarakan Ketika Membicarakan Cinta (What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love) / Mouly Surya / Indonesia

Larzanandeye Charbi (Fat Shaker) / Mohammad Shirvani / Iran

Something Necessary / Judy Kibinge / Kenya

Penumbra / Eduardo Villanueva / Mexico

Digital Production

A Corner of Heaven / Zhang Miaoyan / China

Pozo de aire (Air Pocket) / Milagros Mumenthaler / Argentina

Script and project development

Otra madre (Another Mother) / Mariano Luque / Argentina

Tabija / Igor Drljaca / Bosnia and Herzegovina

Elon Rabin Não Acredita na Morte (Elon Rabin Doesn’t Believe in Death) / Ricardo Alves Jr. / Brazil

Tarde para morir joven (Late To Die Young) / Dominga Sotomayor / Chile

Oscuro animal (Obscure Animal) / Felipe Guerrero / Colombia

Court / Chaitanya Tamhane / India

The Room on a Tree / Amit Dutta / India

Extraño pero verdadero (Strange But True) / Michel Lipkes / Mexico

Tempestad (Tempestuous) / John Torres / Philippines

Days of Cannibalism / Teboho Edkins / South Africa

Rüzgarli Bir Güne Agit (Requiem for a Windy Day) / Özcan Alper / Turkey

Distribution

Atambua 39° Celsius / Riri Riza / Indonesia

Workshops

NAAS Training Workshop / Egypt

Digital Cinema Workshop Series / Morocco

Cinema Land / Vietnam