The Berlinale World Cinema Fund has awarded five projects a total of $200,000 (€154,300) in its latest round of funding.

A total of 130 submissions were made from 48 countries. The jury for the 18th session comprised 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.

The projects to receive production funding were:

Sin Título

  • Director: Lisandro Alonso (Argentina)
  • Production: 4L, Argentina
  • Funding: €50,000

Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories

  • Director: Di Phan Dang (Vietnam)
  • Production: VBlock Media, Vietnam
  • Funding: €40,000

Pelo Malo

  • Director: Mariana Rondón (Venezuela)
  • Production: Sudaca Films, Venezuela
  • Funding: €30,000

The Valley

  • Director: Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon)
  • Production: unafilms, Germany
  • Funding: €30,000

The project to receive distribution funding was:

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 the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with the Goethe Institut, with the support of the Federal Foreign Office.

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.

At the Berlinale 2013, WCF-funded films includedJosé Luis Valle’s Workers,and Emir Baigazin’s Harmony Lessons, which won a Silver Bear in competition.

Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick said: “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.”

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