Nov 03, 2023
Berlinale Spotlight: World Cinema Fund at “Around the World in 14 Films”

For many years, the Berlinale has been presenting specially curated programmes outside the festival timeframe. The programme goes by the name of Berlinale Spotlight.

For the fifth time since 2018, the Berlinale initiative World Cinema Fund (WCF) will be one of the guests, with a Berlinale Spotlight, at the international film festival “Around the World in 14 Films”. At its 18th edition (December 1-9, 2023), “Around the World in 14 Films” will present an all-day Berlinale Spotlight: World Cinema Fund on December 3 with four of the WCF entries in the “14 films” competition. The fifth WCF-film is being presented as part of a homage.

The selection made by the festival together with the WCF will focus on works by filmmakers from Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malaysia, Mongolia and Tunisia:

The film debut Augure by Belgian-Congolese star rapper Baloji is about belief in witches and wizards in Africa; it won the New Voices Award at Cannes Film Festival 2023.

Amanda Nell Eu from Malaysia was awarded the Grand Prix of the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes for her debut Tiger Stripes, a fascinating mix of coming-of-age film and fantasy.

Viewers are transported to a yurt settlement in Mongolia in the coming-of-age story City of Wind by director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (Mongolia). Lead actor Tergel Bold-Erdene received the Best Actor award in the Orrizonti section at Venice Film Festival.

A further highlight is Four Daughters by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. The extraordinary documentary Four Daughters, as well as Augure, City of Wind and Tiger Stripes have been nominated by their respective countries for “Best Foreign Film” at the Oscars 2024.

The festival is screening the 5th WCF film in its “Homage Lisandro Alonso”: Eureka, a new work by the renowned Argentine director. Comprising four chapters, Eureka interweaves various ethnic groups in the USA, Mexico and the Amazon region between the years 1870 and 2019. Starring Viggo Mortensen, who was also brilliant in Alonso’s Jauja, and Chiara Mastroianni.

Vincenzo Bugno, head of the WCF, will introduce the Berlinale Spotlight at “Around the World in 14 Films” on December 3: “Thanks to this excellent, productive cooperation, Berlin audiences will be granted another opportunity to see some exceptional films from this season, realised with the support of the WCF, and representing the WCF’s outstanding versatility. The WCF Spotlight highlights successful films outside the mainstream, which offer a deep insight into the reality of their respective countries and cultures. It is fascinating to see how the filmmakers deal with key issues of current discourse on an artistic level.”

The WCF has been funding films in regions with weak film infrastructures since 2004, and promotes cultural diversity in German and European cinemas: WCF Profile

“Attentiveness, empathy and openness to other perspectives: These are not only imperatives amongst current global upheavals, but also striking features of the World Cinema Fund’s work. The Berlinale’s vital funding programme broadens the perspective of cinema-lovers to include ‘smaller’ film regions – as a result, it has been ensuring more genuine cultural diversity and offering some surprises in world cinema for over 20 years. We much appreciate this contribution,” comment Susanne Bieger and Bernhard Karl, the Festival Directors of “Around the World in 14 Films”.

“Around the World in 14 Films” will take place from December 1 to 9, 2023 at the KulturBrauerei and at the cinemas delphi LUX and Neues Off.

More information and the programme are available at: 14films.de/en/

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 3, 2023