Berlinale World Cinema Fund: New funding decisions and World Cinema Fund Spotlights in Syria and Armenia

(Noticiascadadía).- The World Cinema Fund jury – film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), programme coordinator of the Swiss Television Alberto Chollet (Switzerland), director of the script programme of the EON Screenwriters' Workshop Alby James (England), as well as WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno – chose between 110 projects submitted from a total of 36 countries and granted funds totalling 200,000 euros.
 
The funding recommendations of the eighth selection round on June 25, 2008:
 
Every Day Is a Holiday, director: Dima El-Horr (Lebanon); producer: Orjouane Production, Baabda. German co-producer: Niko Film, Berlin. Feature film, funding: 50,000 €
 
Filmefobia, director: Kiko Goifman (Brazil); producer: Plateau Produções, Sao Paulo. German co-producer: Autentika Films, Tübingen. Feature film, funding: 25,000 €
 
Medianeras, director: Gustavo Taretto (Argentina); producer: Rizoma Films, Buenos Aires. German co-producer: Pandora Film Produktion GmbH, Cologne. Feature film, funding: 50,000 €
 
Pandora’s Box, director: Yesim Ustaoglu (Turkey); producer: Ustaoglu Film Production, Istanbul. German co-producer: The Match Factory GmbH, Cologne. Feature film, funding: 25,000 €
 
The Stoplight Society, director: Rubén Mendoza (Columbia); producer: Dia Fragma Fábrica de películas - Film Factory, Bogotá. Feature film, funding: 50,000 €
 
In addition to selecting the abovementioned films for production funding, the jury recommended the following documentary film for distribution funding:
Recycle, director: Mahmoud Al-Massad (Jordan); producer: iSee Film (Jordan, the Netherlands), Jo Film (Jordan). German distributor: mec film, funding: 10,000 €. Release in Germany: October 2008
 
In between the last two WCF jury sessions, the jury also proposed distribution funding for the following films to be released in German cinemas:
Caramel, director: Nadine Labaki (Lebanon); producer: Anne-Dominique Toussaint (France). German distributor: Alamode Film; world sales: Roissy Films (France).

Feature film, funding: 12,000 €. Release in Germany: April 2008 Daratt, director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad); producer: Chinquitty Films (France), Goi-Goi Productions, (Chad). German distributor: Kairos-Filmverleih GbR; world sales: Pyramide International (France). Feature film, funding: 8,000 €. Release in Germany: March 2008 Since the founding of the WCF in October 2004, 820 projects have been submitted from 67 countries in the regions that are the focus of the WCF (Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Central Asia; and since summer 2007, South East Asia and the Caucasus). 47 projects have received production or distribution funding so far. Within just a few years, the World Cinema Fund has established itself as an instrument for cultural funding and intercultural dialogue, as well as for promoting international contacts within the film industry. The WCF enjoys worldwide esteem and many of the funded films completed in the interim have been invited to important international film festivals.  The next deadline for WCF production-funding applications is August 7, 2008. New distribution-funding applications can be submitted until August 28, 2008. (Further details are available at www.berlinale.de) World Cinema Fund Spotlights in July in Yerevan/Armenia and in November in Damascus/Syria In cooperation with the Goethe-Institute, the event series World Cinema Fund Spotlight has been launched as a WCF “showcase”: selected WCF-funded films have so far been shown in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, in Peru and Chile as well as Indonesia and Mexico in order to inform filmmakers and producers about the WCF. Besides the film series, there are also workshops and case studies on the films funded by the WCF to date at the Goethe-Institutes in each of these countries. The next World Cinema Fund Spotlights will be held in Yerevan, Armenia at the Golden Apricot Film Festival (July 13-20, 2008) and at the Damascus International Film Festival (November 1 –11, 2008) in Syria.  The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute.