The film completion grant, the Hubert Bals Fund, will celebrate its 26th anniversary
from 27 January to 7 February 2016.
Designed to help “remarkable or urgent feature films by innovative and talented
filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern
Europe,’ the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) was launched in 1989 by the Rotterdam
International Film Festival. It is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the
European Union, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch non-governmental
development organisation Hivos, the Dioraphte Foundation and the Lions Club
L’Esprit du Temps.
More than 1 000 independent projects have received support and about 80% were
completed. The grants are divided between “Script & Project Development Support’
and “Post-Production Support’. The maximum contribution is €10 000 per project (for
development) and €20 000 per project (for post-production).
Other grants focus on European opportunities to produce and distribute content: the
“European Minority Co-Production Support’ with a maximum amount of €55 000 per
project and the “Europe Distribution Support’ with a maximum of €20 000 per
project. In 2011, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda wa Munga was awarded funding
for the distribution in various southern African countries of his critically acclaimed
thriller Viva Riva!
An additional grant, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund Plus was
launched in 2006 “to stimulate Dutch producers to get involved in international co-
productions’. An amount of €200 000 is available each year to support Dutch
producers with a maximum of €50 000 per project. In 2014, the South African
project The Wound, directed by John Trengove, received this co-production support.
The Dutch company OAK Motion Pictures, the French company Sampek and the
German company Salzgeber joined this Urucu Media Cape Town-based project.
The Hubert Bals Fund supported various African filmmakers, including the famous
Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad) and Merzak
Allouache (Algeria). As the Hubert Bals Fund is based in a European country, it is
not surprising to see that most of the selected projects are applying to other
European grants such as Locarno’s Open Doors (Rungano Nyoni’s I am Not a Witch –
Zambia), Cannes’ Cinefondation (John Trengove’s The Wound, Teboho Edkins’ Days
of Cannibalism – South Africa) and La Fabrique des Cinemas du Monde (Hala
Elkoussy’s Cactus Flowers – Egypt).
Unsurprisingly, it is mostly English-speaking filmmakers who apply for this grant.
Between 2002 and 2015, no less than 11 South Africans were selected. But northern
African filmmakers such as Tariq Teguia (Algeria), Leila Kilani (Morocco) or
Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia) applied and received support as well. Between 2003
and 2015, 12 North African projects (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt all
together) were awarded.
The Hubert Bals Fund also supports workshops worldwide. It provided support to the
Ugandan project Maisha Film Lab in 2006, 2007 and 2010, and has offered awards at
the Durban FilmMart (South Africa) since 2010. Workshops such as Sud Ecriture in
Tunisia, Recitel Film Festival in Togo, the Blue Nile Film and TV Academy in
Ethiopia, the Imaginations Workshop in DRC, the NAAS Training Workshop in Egypt
and the Digital Cinema Workshop series in Morocco has also received support.
With the huge competition film festivals face in obtaining world premieres, it is not
surprising to see that every festival has a way to support filmmakers at an early
stage to get their movies screened in an upcoming edition.
When some projects escape to another festival (like Cannes, Venice and Berlin) it is
also a great recognition for its early supporters. Meanwhile the Panafrican
Filmmaker Federation (FEPACI) struggles to set up a pan-African Fund for
filmmakers; European grants like HBF are still an opportunity for southern projects.
By Claire Diao
