The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (WCF) has backed 10 feature projects in its 40th session, at a total of €260,000 (£218,479).
The latest funding pot has awarded eight production and two distribution grants, to projects from Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Egypt, Iran, Lesotho, Nepal and Sudan.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Aisha Can’t Fly Away, the debut feature of Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa, receives €25,000. Mostafa participated in the 2024 Berlinale Talents, was named a Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow in 2023, and will take part in the Final Cut in Venice lab with his project in September after shooting this summer.
The film tells the story of a Somali woman who cares for her elderly parents while witnessing the tensions between the different groups who make up her city’s African society.
The production awards consist of six WCF titles and two WCF Europe titles, one of which is Ancestral Visions of the Future, the new film from This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.
Two films receive distribution awards for a German cinema release: Mohamed Kordofani’s Sudanese feature Goodbye Julia, which debuted at Cannes 2023, and Ali Ahmadzadeh’s Iranian-German title Critical Zone, a Locarno 2023 premiere.
The titles were chosen from 195 submitted projects from 55 countries, by a jury consisting of Spanish producer Marta Andreu, German filmmaker Ayse Polat, German-Egyptian curator Viola Shafik, and WCF head Vincenzo Bugno.
WCF 2024 funding
Production funding
WCF
I’m Coming For You (Cam-Ger) dir. Cyrielle Raingou – €40,000
Red Mist Descending (Iran-Ger) dir. Rakhsan Banietemad – €40,000
La Libertad doble (Arg-Ger) dir. Lisandro Alonso – €30,000
Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Egy) dir. Morad Mostafa – €25,000
A Margem do Rio (Braz) dirs. Matheus Farias, Enock Carvalho – €30,000
You Don’t Die Two Times (Alg) dir. Ager Oueslati – €25,000
WCF Europe
Ancestral Visions of the Future (Les-Fr-Ger) dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese – €30,000
The Sky is Mine (Nep-Nor) dir. Deepak Rauniyar – €25,000
Distribution funding for German release
Goodbye Julia (Sud-Egy-Ger-Fr-Swe-S Arabia) dir. Mohamed Kordofani – €7,000
Critical Zone (Ir-Ger) dir. Ali Ahmadzadeh – €8,000
