The Iranian project also participated in the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2022.
The Berlinale World Cinema Fund (WCF) will provide a combined €344,000 in finance to seven international projects.
During the 36th jury session, the (WCF) has recommended production funding for six projects were made for projects from Burkina Faso, Chile, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Iran, as well as one recommendation for distribution funding for the German release of a film from Sudan.
Among them is Egypt the feature film The Settlement, directed by Mohamed Rashad, and produced by Hassala Films (Egypt) and Hala Lotfy. It has been recommended to receive WCF Production Funding of €30,000. From Iran, the feature film My Favourite Cake, directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, production by Honare Khiyal (Iran), with Behtash Sanaeeha and Watchmen Productions (Germany) and Christopher Zitterbart. It has also been recommended to receive WCF Production Funding of €30,000. The Iranian project also participated in the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2022.
Sudanese title, and a film which premiered to critical acclaim in Venice in 2019, You Will Die At Twenty (Mit 20 wirst du sterben), directed by Amjad Abu Alala has been recommended to receive Distribution Funding for €8,000.
The Berlinale’s funding initiative was set up in 2004 to help diversify German cinema and support projects from areas of the world with less filmmaking infrastructure. It’s run by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office, with further support from the Goethe-Institut.
Four previously WCF-funded films will screen at this year’s Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 31 – September 10. Makbul Mubarak’s Autobiography, Lav Diaz’s When The Waves Are Gone and Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen are competing in the Horizons section while Theo Montoya’s Anhell 69 will play in Critics’ Week.
The funding programme for WCF Europe will be announced in early September.
Speaking about the selected project, Vincenzo Bugno, Head of WCF, said: “Right now, in times of war and global conflicts, the WCF’s work seems especially important. The WCF actively promotes the democratisation of international collaborations. Additionally, it focuses on films that connect people instead of confining them — films that convince with their artistic identity.”
