{"id":211300,"date":"2022-09-12T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=211300"},"modified":"2025-10-03T17:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:40:22","slug":"hbfeurope-2022-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/hbfeurope-2022-selection","title":{"rendered":"HBF+Europe 2022 selection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Six co-productions will each receive \u20ac60,000<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announces the recipients of the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme for 2022. Out of 25 applications, six projects by filmmakers from Argentina, Egypt, Guatemala, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Yemen have been awarded a contribution of \u20ac60,000 each through their European co-producers in Austria, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Urgent stories told by distinct voices<\/q>” – Bianca Taal<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Stills from the selected projects<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bianca Taal, head of the Hubert Bals Fund: \u201cThanks to our strong relationship with Creative Europe we\u2019re able to provide increased support to these six remarkable projects. This is a selection full of urgent stories told by distinct voices \u2013 voices that don’t shy away from diving into complex political arenas and equally complex characters.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four of the selected projects are debut features, including\u00a0Mongrel<\/strong>\u00a0by Singaporean filmmaker Wei Liang Chiang. In his feature debut, an illegal Thai migrant gets caught up in a human trafficking operation, supposedly a care-giving scheme, in rural Taiwan. His short and VR work has been shown in Berlin and Venice, and\u00a0Mongrel<\/strong>\u00a0has been developed at Cin\u00e9fondation R\u00e9sidence, Talents Tokyo, and TorinoFilmLab, with development funds also from the HBF.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0The Station<\/strong>\u00a0by Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq, the war in Yemen looms over a women-only petrol station, where the relationship between two sisters is pushed to breaking point amid a fuel crisis. The project\u2019s development was previously supported by the HBF, and it was presented at IFFR\u2019s co-production market in 2020 where it won\u00a0the Wouter Barendrecht Award<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vimukthi Jayasundara is the selection\u2019s most prolific filmmaker \u2013 supported for his latest feature\u00a0Turtle\u2019s Gaze on Spying Stars<\/strong>, set on a mysterious resort where main character Ananda must quarantine and reckon with his past on his return to Sri Lanka. Jayasundara\u2019s debut feature\u00a0The Forsaken Land<\/strong><\/a>, also supported by the HBF, won the Camera d\u2019Or in Cannes 2005. C\u00e9sar D\u00edaz\u2019s civil-war themed debut\u00a0Nuestras madres<\/strong>\u00a0also won the Camera d\u2019Or in Cannes in 2019. He is supported in this round for\u00a0Fidelidad<\/strong>, the story of a love triangle set on Lake Atitl\u00e1n in Guatemala.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reformed gang of hard-boiled thieves are the stars of\u00a0La escuela pesada<\/strong>, the latest project from Argentinian filmmaker Hern\u00e1n Rosselli whose social-realist take on a Buenos Aires hustler,\u00a0Mauro<\/a>, screened at IFFR 2015. Mohamed Rashad explores labour abuses in Egypt in\u00a0The Settlement<\/strong>, where the sons of a father who dies in a blade factory struggle for compensation. The project\u00a0was presented at CineMart in 2021<\/a>\u00a0as part of\u00a0the BoostNL programme<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support 2022 complete selection including applicant producer:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n