Hubert Bals Fund supports 27 projects with $571, 357

This round includes news projects from Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu and a number of first time film-makers. Grants have been handed out for script development, digital production, post-production, distribution and workshops.

Of the projects being supported, six of the eight films receiving help for post-production or final financing are expected to premiere at the next IFFR, which runs January 27 to February 7. The will include Costa Rican film Cold Sea (Agua Fria De Mar), the debut film from Paz Fabrega, Oday Rasheed’s Qarantina, which tells the story of an Iraq hit man hiding in a poor family’s home, and Kenyan film Soul Boy, the first feature from Hawa Essuman. The film, which follows a ghetto child who has 24 hours to retrieve his father’s soul, will be part of the Where Is Africa section at Rotterdam next year.

A further 13 projects have been selected for script development grants including Ustaoğlu, who is working on a new project called Limbo following her international hit Pandora’s Box. Satish Manar’s What’s Your Religion? has also been selected for support while his previous film, The Damned Rain, continues to tour the festival circuit. Projects from first time film-makers including Mongolian director Byamba Sakhya, Wolf Among Wolves (Lobo En Medio De Lobos).

Meanwhile, the fund has also selected to alternation distribution initiatives – Efecto Cine in Uruguay, which organises screenings of national and Latin American films in Uruguay, eastern Argentina and the south of Brazil, and Filipino scheme Cinemanila Sine Barangay, which tours the country with national films and film-makers.

For a full list of selected projects, please visit International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).