The International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund Supports New Projects

The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has selected twelve feature films for its development support initiative, each receiving €10,000 ($10,500) in production funding. This decision follows a record-breaking influx of over 1,150 submissions.

Notable Recipients

Several filmmakers with previous ties to IFFR are among the funded projects. Brazilian director Lillah Hallah, whose film Levante won the Youth Jury Award at IFFR 2024, will receive support for her dark musical comedy Colhões de Ouro. Midhun Murali, recognized for winning a Tiger Special Jury Award for Kiss Wagon, is also granted funding for his upcoming project MTV i.e. Mars to Venus.

Funding for Diverse Stories

Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan, known for The Reports on Sarah and Saleem and A House in Jerusalem, has received funding for his film Conversation with the Sea, which tells the story of a Palestinian man compelled to pay off his deceased son’s debts.

International Projects

Christopher Murray’s Piedras gigantes will be among the first Chilean fiction films shot on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), while Indonesian director Kamila Andini will receive Hubert Bals funding for Four Seasons in Java. Other significant projects include Una Gunjak’s How Melissa Blew a Fuse and Daphne Xu’s Notes of a Crocodile. The complete list also features Darya Zhuk’s Exactly What It Seems, Theo Montoya’s Falso positivo, Elene Mikaberidze’s Le goût de la pêche, and Kasım Ördek’s Goodbye for Now.

Active Storytelling

Tamara Tatishvili, head of the fund, emphasized that the selected filmmakers exhibit a proactive stance in storytelling, opting to express their voices through their art rather than staying silent amidst current challenges.

Focus on Underrepresented Filmmakers

The Hubert Bals Fund is dedicated to supporting filmmakers from regions where local film financing and infrastructure are limited or politically constrained. The fund collaborates closely with IFFR’s other industry initiatives, including its talent development section and the co-production market CineMart.

Previous Recipients and Achievements

Past recipients of the Hubert Bals grant include Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light and Marcelo Caetano’s Baby, both of which won awards at this year’s Cannes festival; Tato Kotetishvili’s Holy Electricity, which received the Golden Leopard in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente program for first and second features; and Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown, which garnered the audience award at the Thessaloniki film festival this year.

Upcoming Festival Dates

The 54th edition of IFFR is scheduled to take place from January 30 to February 9. The festival will announce its complete program on December 17.

Person

Lillah Hallah, Midhun Murali, Muayad Alayan, Christopher Murray, Kamila Andini, Una Gunjak, Daphne Xu, Darya Zhuk, Theo Montoya, Elene Mikaberidze, Kasım Ördek, Tamara Tatishvili, Payal Kapadia, Marcelo Caetano, Tato Kotetishvili, Mahdi Fleifel

Company Names

International Film Festival Rotterdam, Hubert Bals Fund, IFFR

Titles

Colhões de Ouro, Kiss Wagon, MTV i.e. Mars to Venus, The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, A House in Jerusalem, Conversation with the Sea, Piedras gigantes, Four Seasons in Java, How Melissa Blew a Fuse, Notes of a Crocodile, Exactly What It Seems, Falso positivo, Le goût de la pêche, Goodbye for Now, All We Imagine as Light, Baby, Holy Electricity, To a Land Unknown

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