At the 18th jury session of the World Cinema Fund (WCF), four new film projects were selected for production funding as well as one for distribution funding.
Since its establishment in October 2004, the WCF has granted production or distribution backing to a total of 111 projects, selected from 2,011 submissions from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, and the Caucasus . All of the WCF films completed to date have screened at cinemas and/or in the programmes of noted international film festivals, demonstrating the initiative’s worldwide success.
At the Berlinale 2013, WCF-funded films were also a great success. José Luis Valle’s Workers had its world premiere in the Panorama programme,and Kazakh director Emir Baigazin was celebrated worldwide as one of the discoveries of the Competition. His feature film debut Harmony Lessonstook home one of the Silver Bears.
“WCF has established itself as a funding programme for innovative and artistically ambitious filmmaking. We are happy to be able to continue with this successful project,” says Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.
Latest Funding Decisions
The WCF jury made their selection out of 130 submissions from a total of 48 countries and awarded production funds totalling 154,300 €. The jury members are film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), documentary film producer Marta Andreu ( Spain ), distributor and producer Jan De Clercq ( Belgium ), and WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno.
Production funding:
Sin Título, director: Lisandro Alonso (Argentina). Production: 4L, Argentina . Feature film. Funding: 50,000 €
Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, director: Di Phan Dang ( Vietnam ). Production: VBlock Media , Vietnam . Feature film. Funding: 40,000 €
Pelo Malo, director: Mariana Rondón (Venezuela). Production: Sudaca Films, Venezuela. Feature film. Funding: 30,000 €
The Valley, director: Ghassan Salhab ( Lebanon ). Production: unafilms, Germany . Feature film. Funding: 30,000 €
Distribution funding:
Fidai, director: Damien Ounouri ( Algeria ). Distributor: mec film
Release in Germany : May 13, 2013. Funding: 4,300 €
The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, funded by theFederal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with the Goethe Institut, with the support of the Federal Foreign Office.
