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Busan, Gent and London next up for IFFR-backed titles after San Sebastián 

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As summer fades into autumn, titles made with Hubert Bals Fund and IFFR Pro backing, or that screened at previous IFFR editions, continue to feature in festival programmes across the world. With a number of supported titled winning prizes in San Sebastián, there are selections to look out for in London, Gent and Busan.

Film still: Thank You for Banking With Us! by Laila Abbas, world premiere in BFI London’s Official Competition

San Sebastián prizes

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light (HBF, CineMart) won the RTVE-Another Look Award for its focus on the “female universe.” Presented by RTVE, the Spanish public broadcaster, the award includes the acquisition of broadcasting rights for the film’s television debut. Marcelo Caetano’s Baby (HBF, CineMart) took home the Sebastiane Latino Award for its portrayal of LGBTQIA+ themes and just after won Best Fiction Feature at Festival Biarritz Amérique Latine. 

Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Monólogo colectivo (HBF) received a special mention in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera programme, following the opening of her exhibition, Extramission: The Capture of Glowing Eyes.

Busan International Film Festival, 2–11 October

MA – Cry Of Silence picked up a New Currents Award “for its courageous portrayal of resistance to historical and ongoing political challenges under Myanmar’s political junta.” The the second feature by Myanmar filmmaker The Maw Naing, whose 2014 debut The Monk screened at IFFR, was supported by the HBF+Europe: Post-production Support scheme, supported by Creative Europe MEIDA.

New Currents

Icons 

A Window on Asian Cinema

World Cinema

Flash Forward

Teen Spirit, Teen Movie

Film still: MA – Cry of Silence

Film Fest Gent, 9–20 October

Amongst the lineup at the Belgian festival is Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, a 16mm exploration of gender, reproduction, and the notion of family, that picked up a Tiger Short Award at IFFR 2022. Mahdi Fleifel’s HBF-backed To a Land Unknown follows two Palestinian refugee cousins living in underground limbo in Athens.

Film still: To a Land Unknown

BFI London Film Festival, 9–20 October

The world premiere for Palestinian filmmaker Laila Abbas’ debut feature, Thank You for Banking With Us!, is one of an impressive number of IFFR-connected titles screening in London. The “heartfelt, funny”, joint German-Palestinian production was supported by the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production scheme, supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA. The film is a story of two sisters finding unity through tragedy, racing against time to secure their inheritance after the death of their father.

Two titles from IFFR 2024’s Tiger Competition also feature. Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich presents The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire in the Special Presentations programme, her absorbing portrait of the Martinican writer and activist, whilst Julia De Simone’s Hubert Bals Fund-supported Praia Formosa merges the past and present of Rio’s port in the Dare section.

Special Presentations programme

Official Competition

First Feature Competition

Documentary Competition

Love

Dare

Thrill

Journey

Experimenta

Film still: The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

Leiden International Film Festival, 10–20

Two HBF-backed titles screen at the Dutch festival. Singaporean filmmaker Nelicia Low picked up the Best Director Award at Karlovy Vary for her gripping atmospheric thriller Pierce, inspired by fencing and brotherly love.

Film still: Pierce

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