The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), run by the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), has announced its 2018 selection for the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme. The programme aims to encourage European producers to participate as minority co-producers in film projects hailing from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe.

Totalling €260,000, the support will be distributed equally among five feature-film projects from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, China and Indonesia. The financial contribution – €52,000 for each project – will be received through their European co-producers from the Netherlands, Germany, France and Denmark. It’s worth noting that 25% of this funding should be spent in Europe.

Marit van den Elshout, head of IFFR PRO, stated: “Through the HBF+Europe programme, which is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme of the European Union, we are able to forge a strong relationship between European co-producers and the rest of the world. We’ve selected five excellent-looking projects that are well on their way in terms of development and will soon start their production phase alongside a European co-producer. We’re excited to see the result of these collaborative efforts on screen in the near future.”

The supported projects are outlined below.

The Practice [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Martín Rejtman
ficha de la película] is the seventh film by Argentinian director Martín Rejtman, a dramatic comedy focusing on characters and situations, where a yoga teacher sees his life turned upside down. This is the fourth time that Rejtman has received HBF support, after his debut, Rapado (1992), The Magic Gloves (2004) and his latest, Two Gun Shots [+lee también:
tráiler
ficha de la película] (2014), all of which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. The film is being produced by Forastero (Chile) and La Unión de los Ríos (Argentina), and co-produced by Interior XIII (Mexico), Pandora Film (Germany) and the grant recipient, The Film Kitchen (Netherlands).

La vaca que cantó una canción sobre el futuro is the debut feature by Chilean director Francisca Alegría. Previously selected for CineMart 2017 and BoostNL 2018, the film follows a mother who returns from the dead to help heal her family’s wounds. The film is being produced by Jirafa (Chile) and co-produced by Cinéma Defacto (France), Bananeira Films (Brazil) and Snowglobe (Denmark), which is receiving the HBF+Europe support.

Prayers for the Stolen [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] is the debut fiction film by Tatiana Huezo from Mexico and focuses on three young girls, close to adolescence, who live in a town at war. Huezo has directed three feature-length documentaries, and she’s best known for the multi-award-winning Tempestad (2016). The film is being produced by Pimienta Films (Mexico) and co-produced by Jim Stark and Match Factory Productions (Germany).

To Live to Sing is the sophomore feature by Chinese filmmaker Johnny Ma (Old Stone). The story follows the owner of a small, traditional Chinese opera company who must fight against bureaucracy to save her theatre and neighbourhood. The film was selected for CineMart 2018 (see the news), and is being produced by Image X Productions (China) and co-produced by House on Fire (France).

The Science of Fictions [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] is the third feature by Indonesian director Yosep Anggi Noen (Peculiar Vacation and Other Illnesses). In it, a mute man is the sole witness to the biggest fraud in history, the moon landing, and he struggles to convince others that he actually saw what he saw. The movie is being produced by Angka Fortuna Sinema (Indonesia), and co-produced by Andolfi (France) and Astro Shaw (Malaysia).