ROTTERDAM 2012
Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was supported by the HBF
Rotterdam’s treasure chest R
otterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) is an essential part of the fi lm festival’s DNA. It supports
work from innovative and talented fi lm- makers from developing countries and bears the name of the festival’s founder, Huub Bals. A festival without the HBF would be unthinkable, and yet the Fund is under mounting pressure. At present, it runs on an annual
budget of close to $1.3m (¤1m), but the money it receives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, around $830,000 (¤650,000), will soon decrease. “We knew this was coming. We were anticipating the situation might get more and more tense,” says Iwana Chronis, the fund’s manager, of the planned cuts. “[Netherlands] has quite a right-wing government at the moment that does not really support both culture and develop-
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‘The strength of the Fund is talent development. It is something we won’t cut
back on’ Iwana Chronis, HBF
ment aid. We are kind of in the middle. We are being slapped in both ways.” The challenge now is to secure fi nanc-
ing from outside the Netherlands. This year, the fund received 743 applications — a clear sign of how much it is needed. In what appears a typically rich har-
vest, there are 17 HBF-backed titles from 11 different countries screening across the festival programme. Five are in the Tiger competition, including Orhan Eskikoy and Zeynel Dogan’s Voice Of My Father (Turkey), Kleber Mendonca Fil- ho’s Neighbouring Sound (Brazil) and Eduardo Nunes’ Southwest (Brazil). If its budget continues to be trimmed,
the fund will need to make stark choices about how it targets its spending. “The strength of the HBF is in talent development,” says Chronis. “For us, our whole script and project development
The Hubert Bals Fund cultivates fresh voices from developing markets. Geoffrey Macnab reports
section is key to what we do. It is some- thing we won’t cut back on — it is some- thing we have to re-inforce even more.” CineMart is presenting fi ve projects
backed by the HBF alongside the Binger Film Lab and CineMart’s own Boost! programme, a prime example of the type of talent development initiatives the Fund nurtures. A further key priority is distribution.
Together with sister fund, the Jan Vrij- man Fund, run by Amsterdam’s docu- mentary festival IDFA, HBF is continuing to support the Cinema Mondial Tour, now in its third year. Through this tour, around 32,000 spec- tators in Africa were able to see films backed by the two funds. Next year, the aim is to expand the showcase to take in parts of the Middle East as well as Africa. The HBF and the Jan Vrijman Fund
January 2012 International Film Festival Rotterdam 15 ■
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