Rotterdam Film Festival Fund and Titles announced

Rotterdam — 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (21 Jan- 1 Feb 2009) has disclosed its first titles Thursday, November 6, 2008. It also announced details about Hubert Bals Fund, saying that fund's next instalment would be given to a worthy winner at this year's IFFI India (Goa Film Festival) starting from 22 November.  

"If the Seed Doesn’t Die," by Serbian-Romanian helmer Sinisa Dragin, will see its world premier at the 38th edition of Rotterdam film festival.

The pic explores religious issues in the Balkans, when two fathers looking for lost children meet on the Danube river.

Dragin took one of Rotterdam’s Tiger Awards in 2002 for "Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth."

Also slated for 38th edition is "Gabbla" (Inland), sophomore feature from Algerian helmer Tariq Teguia, and "Now Showing" by Raya Martin of the Philippines.

All three helmers received coin this week from the fest's Hubert Bals Fund.

Martin gets aid for his digital project "How to Disappear Completely," a docu-style pic following a group of actors trying to survive in the jungle. It shoots in parallel with his feature "Independencia."

Teguia receives funds to complete a 35mm version of "Gabbla," which took the Fipresci prize at Venice.

Other pics expected to screen at Rotterdam include Haile Gerima’s “Teza,” Yesim Ustaoglu’s “Pandora’s Box,” Emily Tang’s “Perfect Life,” Matheus Nachtergaele’s “The Dead Girl’s Feast” and Yang Jin’s “Er Dong.” All pics received Hubert Bals coin in past funding rounds.

Among the 25 projects sharing Euros 362,500 ($464,100) in this year’s Hubert Bals funding round are scripts from Pablo Larrain ("Post Mortem"), Rodrigo Moreno ("Reimon") and Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Primitive — Uncle Boonmee").

Hubert Bals Fund & Goa Film Festival of India (IFFI 2008)

A Hubert Bals Fund Award of $6,400 will go to the best project presented at the Film Bazaar running Nov. 26-29 at the International Film Festival of India in Goa.

The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to bring remarkable or urgent feature films and feature-length creative documentaries by innovative and talented filmmakers from developing countries closer to completion. The HBF provides grants that often turn out to play a crucial role in enabling these filmmakers to realize their projects.

Although the Fund looks closely at the financial aspects of a project, the decisive factors remain its content and artistic value. Since the Fund started in 1988, close to 600 projects from independent filmmakers in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America have received support. Approximately 80% of these projects have been realised or are currently in production. Every year, the IFFR screens completed films supported by the Fund.

Grants and selection rounds

Annually, the Hubert Bals Fund has close to €1.2 million at its disposal and is able to make individual grants of up to €10,000 for script and project development, €20,000 for low budget digital production, €30,000 for post-production or €15,000 towards distribution costs in the country of origin. Selection rounds take place twice a year, with application deadlines on March 1 and August 1.

The main programme sections of the International Film Festival Rotterdam include:

    * Tiger Awards Competition for first or second feature films
    * Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films
    * Cinema of the Future: Sturm und Drang (innovative films by upcoming talent)
    * Cinema of the World: Time & Tide (socially and culturally committed filmmaking including a rich harvest of new films supported by the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund)
    * Maestros: Kings & Aces (films by the accomplished maestros of auteur cinema)
    * Cinema Regained (independent or avant-garde film classics, documentaries on film)
    * Short: As Long As It Takes (short film section, January 22-26, 2009)
    * Filmmakers and Artist in Focus
    * Exploding Cinema (exhibitions of film-related arts installations)
    * In addition, the 38th IFFR will present special theme sections.