HBF+Europe support for eight co-productions announced

The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) announces eight projects awarded €60,000 each through its HBF+Europe support schemes: five through Minority Co-production Support and three through Post-production Support. The selection includes notable support for projects from Kosovo and Armenia, returning HBF- and CineMart-supported titles including Nightsong by Maya Da-Rin and Four Seasons in Java by Kamila Andini, alongside first-time HBF support for Un Certain Regard-winning filmmaker Asmae El Moudir and Sundance-winner Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan.

Tamara Tatishvili, Head of the Hubert Bals Fund said: “The two 2026 editions we’ve just witnessed of IFFR and the Berlinale have brought the impact of our HBF+Europe schemes into sharp focus, no less than with Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s HBF+Europe: Post-production-supported Variations on a Theme taking the Tiger Award at IFFR 2026, and Danielle Arbid’s Only Rebels Win opening the Panorama section at the Berlinale. These results reflect exactly what targeted co-funding supported by Creative Europe can achieve. In this new selection, we are particularly proud to support a project from Kosovo via their Bulgarian applicant producer – part of a growing engagement from low production capacity countries that we are pleased to encourage. Alongside new voices, we are glad to continue investing in filmmakers whose careers we have followed for years, including Maya Da-Rin and Kamila Andini, and we’re delighted to offer them all a further helping hand to bring their projects towards completion.”

HBF+Europe schemes

The HBF+Europe funding schemes, supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme of the European Union, encourage European producers to participate as a co-producer in film projects by filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. The HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme provides advanced financing for production, whilst HBF+Europe: Post-production Support helps consolidate funding once shooting is complete. 

HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support 2025 selection

Bleach dir. Kaltrina Krasniqi, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro – HBF Development Support 2022
Applicant producer: Portokal, Bulgaria
After getting a new job as a cleaner in an advertising agency, Fatime starts exploring the possibility of friendship outside her social class.

Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me dir. Asmae El Moudir, Morocco, France, Norway, Denmark, Chile
Applicant producer: Haut et Court Doc, France
Condemned to a life away from the sun, Fatimazahra lived at night with the “Children of the Moon”. After her passing, her sister Meriem carries forward her dreams, creating a refuge, nurturing a close-knit community, and venturing into the polar night.

Hum dir. Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, Philippines, USA, Poland, Germany
Applicant producer: Oma Inge Film GmbH, Germany
Esme, a native horse rider gifted with the rare ability to mimic animal sounds, guides Professor Arceo, an animal linguist tasked to track down an eco-terrorist in the forest.

The Last Tears of the Deceased dir. Beza Hailu Lemma (Ethiopia), Canada, Germany, France – CineMart 2021
Applicant producer: Die Gesellschaft DGS, Germany
A newly ordained priest sets off on a dreamlike journey across Ethiopia to uncover the truth about his childhood death, facing revelations that could unravel his faith.

Nightsong dir. Maya Da-Rin, Brazil, France, Portugal – HBF Development Support 2021, CineMart 2022
Applicant producer: Still Moving, France
On a monoculture soybean farm in southern Brazil, the friendship between a peasant child and an elderly Guarani native woman is affected by the appearance of an unknown plant resistant to pesticides.

HBF+Europe: Post-production Support 2025 selection

Dear Ajayi dir. Damilola Orimogunje, Nigeria, Germany
Applicant producer: Mayana Films, Germany
In 1990s Nigeria, two estranged sisters forced to live under the same roof while caring for their paralysed mother navigate grief, ambition, love, and the fragile bonds of family.

Four Seasons in Java dir. Kamila Andini, Indonesia, France, Netherlands, Norway – HBF Development 2025, CineMart 2025
Applicant producer: Ici et Là Productions, France
A woman released from prison returns to her village to rebuild her life. Together with the marginalised, she finds the power to confront her past and redefine her own meaning of home, family and peace.

Zemfo dir. Vahagn Khachatryan & Aren Malakyan, Armenia, Italy, Switzerland
Applicant producer: Okta Film, Italy
In a village of the Nagorno-Karabakh region amidst the chaos of the Armenian and Azerbaijani war, a cow gives birth to a calf, Zemfo. As villagers pack their belongings and flee their homes to escape the bombings, Zemfo is sold to Iranian animal dealers and begins a voyage from Armenia to Iraqi Kurdistan through Iran, crossing ever-shifting borders and human landscapes.

More about the minority co-production selections

From Kosovo comes an intimate character drama examining class, gender and caregiving labour with Bleach by Kosovo filmmaker Kaltrina Krasniqi following two women from vastly different social worlds whose paths cross through work. Previously backed with HBF Development Support, the female-led project marks Krasniqi’s second feature, after Vera Dreams of the Sea premiered at Venice 2021 and won the Tokyo International Film Festival Grand Prix and the Ingmar Bergman Award at Gothenburg 2022.

Set against the environmental devastation caused by agribusiness in southern Brazil, Maya Da-Rin’s Nightsong also traces an unlikely friendship, between a child and an elderly Guarani woman, disrupted by the appearance of a pesticide-resistant plant. Da-Rin’s HBF-backed debut The Fever (IFFR 2020) premiered at Locarno, winning the Golden Leopard for Best Actor and the FIPRESCI Award, and screened at over 100 festivals worldwide. Shifting between fable, suspense and the fantastic, Nightsong received HBF Development Support in 2021 and was presented at CineMart in 2022.

Another former CineMart project is Ethiopian filmmaker Beza Hailu Lemma’s The Last Tears of the Deceased, a dreamlike journey across Ethiopia in which a newly ordained priest sets out to uncover the truth about his own childhood death. The project received the Next Step Prize from La Semaine de la Critique at Cannes 2025, continuing the trajectory of Lemma’s short Alazar (2024), which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week and won awards at the Red Sea Film Festival and FESPACO. 

Filipino filmmaker Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan brings a bold genre reimagining with his debut Hum, a subversive western set in the misty highlands of the Philippines. Blending sci-fi sensibilities, techno imagery, sweeping horseback sequences and neon-lit rodeos, the film examines post-colonial conditions and their impact on Indigenous youth. Eblahan’s short The Headhunter’s Daughter (2022) won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and proof-of-concept short Vox Humana (2024) premiered at TIFF.

Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir’s hybrid documentary odyssey Don’t Let The Sun Go Up On Me follows Meriem as she carries forward the dreams of her late sister Fatimazahra, who had xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) – a rare genetic disease that makes sunlight life-threatening. Gathering a community of young adults with XP, Meriem sets out to fulfil Fatimazahra’s dream: to live normally and visit her long-distance love Alex in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, where polar night lasts for weeks. El Moudir’s debut The Mother of All Lies won the Directing Prize in Un Certain Regard and the Golden Eye for Best Documentary at Cannes 2023.

More about the post-production selections

Shot between 2020 and 2023 in Armenia, Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan, across conflict zones, migration routes, villages, markets and refugee camps, the documentary Zemfo by Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren Malakyan follows the journey of a calf of the same name, born in a Nagorno-Karabakh village as war forces its inhabitants to flee. Zemfo’s journey becomes a lens through which to examine migration, displacement and survival, with moments of magic, empathy, and love emerging. The pair’s debut 5 Dreamers and a Horse (2022) premiered in international competition at Visions du Réel and won the Grand Prix at Perso IFF and the Jury Prize at Ethnofest.

Dear Ajayi by Nigerian filmmaker Damilola Orimogunje is set in 1990s Nigeria, following two estranged sisters caring for their paralysed mother as they navigate grief, ambition and the fragile bonds of family. With Dear Ajayi he continues his interest in exploring emotional vulnerability, silence and the unspoken tensions following his debut feature For Maria Ebun Pataki, centred on postpartum depression within a relationship, which premiered at Film Africa 2020 and won an Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award. Orimogunje produced All the Colors of the World Are Between Black and White (dir. Babatunde Apalowo), which premiered at the 2023 Berlinale and won the Teddy Award. 

Completing a slate of IFFR support that includes HBF Development support, NFF+HBF support and CineMart presentation, Four Seasons in Java by Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini is supported for post-production. The film follows a woman released from prison who returns to her village to confront her past alongside a community of the marginalised. Andini’s previous film Before, Now & Then premiered at the 2022 Berlinale, where Laura Basuki won a Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance.