Nov 25, 2022
New Funding Recommendations / WCF Europe – TFL Audience Design Award / Mentoring Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the 37th jury session of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund (WCF), the juries made eleven funding recommendations for projects from Argentina, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Iran, Peru, Tunisia and Venezuela. The current funding amounts to a total of 440,000 Euros. The WCF is pleased to be able to support independent cinema even more strongly in times of crisis and to promote the visibility of the cultural complexity of our world.

“More and more high-quality projects are being submitted to the WCF for documentary formats, with the trend also being confirmed by the results of this jury meeting. The submissions are deep and highly emotional projects that show, from various sides, a study of the reality of characters who feel instantly familiar, and who convey their cultural surroundings to us,” comments Vincenzo Bugno, head of WCF, on the funding recommendations.

The Funding Recommendations in the 37th Jury Session

The WCF jury made its selection from 176 submitted projects from a total of 51 countries. The funding recommendations encompass funding in the amount of 440,000 Euros.

Two directors have participated in Berlinale Talents in the past, one project was presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2022.

The members of the jury are the documentary film producer and documentary creative advisor Marta Andreu (Spain), the producer Zsuzsanna Kiràly (Germany / Austria), film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany / Egypt) and Vincenzo Bugno (Italy / Germany), the head of the WCF. Additionally, the jurors for WCF Africa are the producer, festival director of the pan-African film festival FESPACO and the Berlin festival Afrikamera, Alex Moussa Sawadogo (Burkina Faso) and the Berlinale delegate for Sub-Saharan Africa Dorothee Wenner (Germany).

Production Funding WCF

The Difficult Bride, director: Rubaiyat Hossain (Bangladesh). Production: Khona Talkies (Bangladesh), Aadnan Imtiaz Ahmed. Feature film.
Funding: €50,000
The project participated in the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2022. The director participated in Berlinale Talents in 2017.

Le Fardeau, director: Elvis Ngaïbino (Central African Republic). Production: Makongo Films (Central African Republic), Vicky Nelson Wackoro; Kiripi Films (Democratic Republik of the Congo), Dieudo Hamadi. Documentary form.
Funding: €30,000
Intended additional funding by WCF ACP: €60,000

I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal, director: Héctor Silva (Venezuela). Production: Genuino (Venezuela), Rodolfo Cova; Orinokia Filmproduktion UG (Germany), Jurgen Jencquel. Feature film.
Funding: €50,000

Letters from Ms. Iran, director: Farahnaz Sharifi. Production: Pak Film (Iran), Farzad Pak; Jyoti Film (Germany), Anke Petersen and Lilian Tietjen. Documentary form. Funding: €30,000

Lovers in the Sky, director: Fermín de la Serna (Argentina). Production: Climax (Argentina), Fermín de la Serna; Blink Media Inc. (USA); Río Azul Films (Argentina). Documentary form.
Funding: €30,000

WCF Europe

The Anatomy of the Horse, director: Daniel Vidal (Peru). Production: Pioneros Producciones (Peru), Henry Vallejo; Playa Chica Films (Spain), Ignacio Vuelta. Feature film.
Funding: €50,000

The Klezmer Project, directors: Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann (Argentina). Production: Nevada Cine (Argentina), Andrew Sala; Nabis Filmproduktion (Austria), Lukas Valenta Rinner. Documentary form.
Funding: €30,000

Machtat, director: Sonia Ben Slama (Tunisia). Production: Khamsin Films (Lebanon), Tania El Khoury; Alter Ego Production (France), Cécile Lestrade. Documentary form. Funding: €30,000

WCF Africa

Dia, director: Achille Adoumbaye Ronaimou (Chad). Production: SIC Productions (Chad), Issa Serge Coelo; Babi Pictures (Cote d'Ivoire), Jacques Trabi; Artisans du Film (France), Valéry du Peloux; Filmgalerie 451 (Germany), Frieder Schleich. Feature film.
Funding: €30,000
Intended additional funding by WCF ACP: €30,000

Distribution Funding

Anhell69, director: Theo Montoya (Colombia). Distribution: Salzgeber & Co. Documentary form.
Funding: €10,000
German release date: June 15, 2023

Trenque Lauquen, director: Laura Citarella (Argentina). Distribution: Grandfilm. Feature film.
Funding: €10,000
German release date: May 5, 2023
The director participated in Berlinale Talents in 2009.

WCF Europe – TFL Audience Design Award

The WCF also awarded the WCF Europe – TFL Audience Design Award, in cooperation with the TorinoFilmLab (TFL) which is organised by The National Museum of Cinema, to:

Crocodile Tears, director: Tumpal Tampubolon (Indonesia). Production: Tanakhir Film (Indonesia), Mandy Marahimin; 2Pilots Filmproduktion GmbH (Germany), Harry Flöter; Acrobates Films (France), Claire Lajoumard. Feature film.
The project was recommended for WCF-funding in July and was presented in the Talent Project Market in February 2022.

Mentoring Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Media Law

In December, the WCF is organising a mentoring project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: following an idea by the cinema project Cine na Biso in Kinshasa, Congolese attorneys specialising in international media law will have the opportunity to take part in advanced education sessions that focus on negotiating contracts in film production in order to create good conditions for cooperation with partners. The workshop will be led by Matthias Braun (Studio Legal), a Berlin-based attorney specialising in media law, licensing contracts and financing structures.

Since 2004, the Berlinale World Cinema Fund has been successfully supporting film production in regions characterised by an insufficient film infrastructure by virtue of its increasingly differentiated funding programme (WCF, WCF Europe, WCF Africa, WCF ACP) and advocating cultural diversity in German cinemas. The cooperation between production companies from the production regions or countries and German / European production companies is supported as well: General information on the WCF funding.

The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office and with further support by the Goethe-Institut.
The special WCF Europe programme was launched with the support of the European Union's Creative Europe MEDIA programme. Thanks to additional funding from the German Federal Foreign Office, the special programme WCF Africa was started in 2016.

The complementary programme WCF ACP is funded with the financial contribution of the European Union and the support of the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States through the ACP-EU Culture Programme.

Press Office
November 25, 2022