Berlinale World Cinema Fund: Latest Jury Decisions

At the 19th session of the World Cinema Fund (WCF) jury, five new film projects were recommended for production funding as well as three for distribution funding.

Since its establishment in October 2004, the WCF has awarded production and distribution funding to a total of 119 projects chosen from 2,135 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, demonstrating the initiative’s worldwide success.
Among the recent international successes were festival winners in San Sebastián and Busan: The German-Mongolian co-production Remote Control by Byamba Sakhya received the New Currents Award at the 18th Busan Film Festival 2013, and the Venezuelan film Pelo Malo by Mariana Rondón was awarded the Golden Shell at this year’s festival in San Sebastián.
Latest Jury Decisions

The WCF jury made their selection from 121 submissions from a total of 43 countries and awarded funds totalling 164,357.50 €. Jury members are film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), documentary producer Marta Andreu (Spain), distributor and producer Jan De Clercq (Belgium) and WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno.


Production funding:

Los Hongos, director: Óscar Ruiz Navia (Colombia). Production: Burning Blue & Contravia Films, Colombia. Feature film. Funding: 30,000 €.

Benjamín o el Planetario, director: Carlos Machado Quintela (Cuba). Production: Rizoma, Argentina. German partner: M-Appeal. Feature film. Funding: 35,000 €.

Ejercicios de la Memoria, Regie: Paz Encina (Paraguay). Production: Autentika Film, Germany. Documentary. Funding: 35,000 €.

Te Prometo Anarquía, director: Julio Hernández Cordón (Guatemala). Production: Interior 13, Mexico. Feature film. Funding: 30,000 €.

In the Last Days of the City, director: Tamer El Said (Egypt). Production: Zero Production (Egypt). Documentary. Funding: 20,000 €.


Distribution funding:

Coming Forth by Day, director: Hala Lofty (Egypt). German distributor: Arsenal für Film und Videokunst e.V. Release in Germany: November 14, 2013. Funding: 4,357.50 €.

Carne de Perro, director: Fernando Guzzoni (Chile). German distributor: déjà-vu film UG. Release in Germany: January 23, 2014. Funding: 5,000 €.

Workers, director: José Luís Valle (Mexico). German distributor: Bildkraft. Release in Germany: December 12, 2013. Funding: 5,000 €.


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.