Two prizes for HBF and IFFR Pro-supported films: Cannes 2026 round-up

The IFFR team is just back from a busy and rewarding edition at Cannes. Across the Official Selection and Semaine de la Critique, five IFFR-backed films featured in the programme, two took home prizes and Rotterdam Lab alumni were present throughout. The Hubert Bals Fund made two major announcements as HBF+Brazil launched its second edition at a full-house panel at the Marché du Film, and the Displacement Film Fund revealed its second cycle of recipients.

Jury Prize: Elephants in the Fog

Nepalese filmmaker Abinash Bikram Shah won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard for his debut feature Elephants in the Fog (2026). Set in Nepal’s transgender community, the film was described by Cédric Succivalli in The International Cinephile Society as “a work of shattering visual beauty and queer political ferocity.”

The film carries a strong IFFR connection: HBF supported it with Development Support in 2021 and HBF+Europe Minority Co-production Support in 2023, while IFFR Pro and the Netherlands Film Festival’s BoostNL development programme backed it between 2022 and 2023. Co-producer Tatiana Leite of Bubbles Project (Brazil) – a Rotterdam Lab 2015 alumna and regular CineMart mentor – adds yet another connection.

Caméra d’or: Ben’imana

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, the first Rwandan filmmaker in the Cannes Official Selection, won the Caméra d’or at Cannes 2026 for Ben’imana, recognising the best first feature across the selections. The film was supported by HBF with Development Support in 2022.

A self-taught filmmaker born in Kigali, Dusabejambo’s debut feature is a portrait of Rwanda as it continues to rebuild following the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. Told predominantly through female characters, the film traces intergenerational trauma as love and hate, resentment and reconciliation intertwine. An African majority co-production, the cast is composed almost entirely of non-professional actors. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Sheri Linden called it “a searing and intimate portrait of a nation’s reckoning.”

More HBF and CineMart titles in the Cannes selection

Two prizes aside, five IFFR-backed films featured across the Official Selection and Semaine de la Critique this year.

Also in Un Certain Regard, Titanic Ocean (dir. Konstantina Kotzamani, 2026) – presented at CineMart in 2019 – is set in a Japanese boarding school that trains teenage girls as professional mermaids. Seth Abramovitch for The Hollywood Reporter called it “one of the festival’s most intriguing offerings” that “has all the hallmarks of a cult object in the making.”

In the Semaine de la Critique, Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq’s debut fiction feature The Station (2026) follows a women-only petrol station in war-torn Yemen. The film was HBF supported the film at multiple stages with Development (2018), HBF+Europe (2022) and NFF+HBF (2022) and it was presented at CineMart in 2020. Nikki Baughan in Screen describes a “moving, sobering study of the impact of civil war on both country and individual” that likewise offers “a great deal of hope in its celebration of the strength of community – particularly sisterhood.”

Also in Critics’ Week, Mexican filmmaker Bruno Santamaría Razo’s Seis meses en el edificio rosa con azul (2026), supported by HBF+Europe in 2024, is a tender, 16mm-shot memoir of family life in 1990s Mexico City, where a boy’s first love collides with his father’s HIV diagnosis. Mutada Elfadl in Variety calls the film “a beautiful homage from the filmmaker to his parents” that “feels like an act of remembrance.”

Rotterdam Lab alumni 

A special congratulations to Andrea Berentsen Ottmar (Rotterdam Lab 2021) of Eye Eye Pictures, who co-produces Palme d’Or winner Fjord by Cristian Mungiu. She’s one of several Rotterdam Lab alumni who presented films across Cannes 2026 – read the full overview here.

Displacement Film Fund: second cycle

At Cannes, Cate Blanchett – actor, producer and UNHCR Global Goodwill Ambassador – joined IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund at a panel event to announce the five recipient filmmakers for the second cycle of the Displacement Film Fund (DFF) short film grant scheme. Read about all the recipients here.

Renowned photographer Greg Williams captured four of the five filmmakers together with partners at Cannes. 

HBF returns as Management Partner for the second cycle, alongside founding partners Amahoro Coalition, Droom en Daad, Master Mind, the Tamer Family Foundation and UNIQLO, with UNHCR as Strategic Partner. The SP Lohia Foundation joins as a new Major Partner.

HBF+Brazil: second edition launch

Elsewhere for the Hubert Bals Fund, it was a packed schedule of panels and meetings. They presented at La Fabrique Cinéma, connected with alumni and partners, announced the and launched the second edition of HBF+Brazil.

Together with Brazilian partners Projeto Paradiso, RioFilme, Spcine and Embratur, HBF hosted a full-house panel at the Marché du Film’s Producers’ Network to mark the launch of the second edition of HBF+Brazil: Co-development Support. Representatives from all four partner organisations were joined by filmmakers and producers Frank Hoeve (Baldr Film), Tatiana Leite (Bubbles Project) and Ivan Melo (CUP Filmes) for a conversation about the broader landscape for Brazilian cinema and the role international co-development support plays in it.

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