Hubert Bals Fund

18/09/2026

HBF- and IFFR Pro-supported films in San Sebastián 🐚

Congratulations to Seis meses en el edificio rosa con azul (dir. Bruno Santamaría Razo), winner of the Sebastiane Latino Award at the Donostia Zinemaldia - Festival de San Sebastián!

Supported through HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support in 2024, the film picks up the prize for its portrayal of q***r coming-of-age in 1990s Mexico City.

Also screening in Horizontes Latinos is the Brazilian psychological thriller The French Teacher (dir. Ricardo Alves Jr.), backed through HBF Development in 2017 which has its world premiere.

The Darkroom-presented Bloques erráticos (dir. Thomas Woodroffe), which won the Eurimages New Lab Award – Outreach (€30,000) at the IFFR Pro Awards in 2025, has its world premiere in New Directors.

IFFR titles in San Sebástian:

✧ La belle année (dir. Angelica Ruffier) – IFFR 2026 Tiger Competition – Zabaltegi-Tabakalera
✧ Bloques erráticos (dir. Thomas Woodroffe) – Darkroom 2026 – New Directors – World Premiere
✧ The French Teacher (dir. Ricardo Alves Jr.) – HBF Development 2017 – Horizontes Latinos – World Premiere
✧ Narciso (dir. Marcelo Martinessi) – HBF Development 2020 – Horizontes Latinos – Closing Film
✧ Seis meses en el edificio rosa con azul (dir. Bruno Santamaría Razo) – HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support 2024 – Horizontes Latinos – Sebastiane Latino Award
✧ Whispers of a Burning Scent (dir. Mo Harawe) – Displacement Film Fund – Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

16/09/2026

Venice Silver Lion for HBF- and CineMart-backed Dau 🦁

Our congratulations to Ilya Khrzhanovsky who won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival for the Hubert Bals Fund-supported Dau.

Inspired by the Soviet physicists who built the atomic bomb, the epic Dau follows a Greek-born physicist in the USSR over four decades as his search for scientific truth is bent to the service of the state.

More than 20 years ago at IFFR 2004, Khrzhanovsky’s debut feature 4 won the Tiger Award. The following year the Hubert Bals Fund backed Dau with Development Support, and in 2006 the project was presented at CineMart.

09/09/2026

Hubert Bals Fund on the Final Cut in Venice jury ✂️🦁

As five HBF-backed films screen at the Venice Biennale Cinema, Head of the Hubert Bals Fund Tamara Tatishvili joined the jury for Final Cut in Venice, which supports the completion of films from Africa and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen.

She served alongside Tareq Al-Ibrahim (MBC) and Mariette Rissenbeek, and together awarded the La Biennale di Venezia Prize of €10,000 for the best film in post-production to Madi Makambu by Machérie Ekwa Bahango (DR Congo, France, Belgium).

Our thanks to La Biennale di Venezia and the Venice Production Bridge team, and to Tareq and Mariette for three days of work together.

Read more about the HBF films in Venice here: https://iffr.com/en/blog-hbf-cinemart-venice-locarno-2026

08/09/2026

Apply now for HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support 🌎🇪🇺

Applications for the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme are now open!

Through HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme, the Hubert Bals Fund aims to encourage European producers to participate as a minority co-producer in bold film projects by filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe.

HBF+Europe is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme of the European Union.

Read more and apply by 22 September 2026, 17.00 CEST via: https://iffr.com/en/hubert-bals-fund/funding-schemes/hbfeurope-minority-co-production-support

Film still: Seis meses en el edificio rosa con azul by Bruno Santamaría Razo, HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production 2024 and winner of Sebastiane Latino Award in San Sebastián for LGBTIQA+ film.

07/09/2026

Second edition of HBF+Brazil: Co-development Support is now open for applications 🇧🇷

We're pleased to open the call for the second edition of our HBF+Brazil: Co-development Support initiative, a collaboration between IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund and Spcine, RioFilme, Projeto Paradiso and Embratur – bringing together local expertise and international reach to back bold, original Brazilian storytelling.

This initiative supports Brazilian filmmakers with grants of up to €10,000 for feature fiction projects in early development. Up to eleven projects will be supported in this round.

Project eligibility at a glance:
✧ Second or third feature fiction project (no debuts)
✧ Brazilian director and Brazilian production company
✧ Early development stage – script, research or concept building

Apply by Thursday 10 September, 17.00 CEST via: https://iffr.com/en/hubert-bals-fund/funding-schemes/hbfbrazil-co-development-support

04/09/2026

Hubert Bals Fund at Montenegro Film Rendezvous 🇲🇪

Tamara Tatishvili presented the work of the Hubert Bals Fund to a packed room of industry professionals at the third Montenegro Film Rendezvous, part of the 39th Herceg Novi Film Festival which took place from 22 to 28 August.

Hosted by the Film Centre of Montenegro, the Rendezvous brought together film agencies, funds and filmmakers from across Europe and beyond for pitching sessions, master classes, panels and workshops.

The visit follows a year of deepening ties across the region, with eight of the 20 projects in the 2026 HBF Development scheme selected under a regional focus on Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Our thanks to Aleksandra Božović, Managing Director of the Film Centre of Montenegro, and to Tamara Vujović of the Ministry of Culture and Media of Montenegro, pictured in the second image with Tamara, along with the whole team behind this impressive Rendezvous.

21/08/2026

20/08/2026

Hubert Bals Fund-backed films at the Venice Biennale Cinema 🦁

IFFR-backed films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund and presented at CineMart are heading to the Venice Biennale Cinema, as well as a Lightroom-presented immersive work in Venice’s Immersive Competition.

Two decades in the making and more than twenty years after his debut 4 won the Tiger Award at IFFR 2004 – Ilya Khrzhanovsky's Dau traces a physicist in the USSR, backed by us with HBF Development Support in 2005 and a CineMart 2006 presentation.

𝑶𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
✧ Dau by Ilya Khrzhanovsky (HBF Development Support 2005, CineMart 2006)

𝑶𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒛𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊
✧ Yak Mai (The Burning Giants) by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng (HBF Development Support 2021, NFF+HBF 2024, CineMart 2023)

𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕
✧ Conversation with the Sea by Muayad Alayan (HBF Development Support 2024, HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support 2025)
✧ Guria by Levan Koguashvili (HBF Development Support 2019)

𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
✧ NOX by Rio Nakada (Lightroom work-in-progress 2026)

𝑮𝒊𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒈𝒍𝒊 𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊
✧ Dear Ajayi by Damilola Elijah Orimogunje (HBF+Europe: Post-production Support 2025)

Read more via: https://iffr.com/en/blog-hbf-cinemart-venice-locarno-2026

17/08/2026

Two prizes for HBF-supported films in Locarno 🏆

A huge congratulations to two films, supported by the Hubert Bals Fund and CineMart, that have picked up major prizes at the Locarno Film Festival.

First up, the Special Jury Prize in the Concorso internazionale went to À Margem do Rio (The Riverbank) by Matheus Farias () and Enock Carvalho () (Brazil, Germany), supported by the Hubert Bals Fund for development in 2022.

Cineuropa's Muriel Del Don describes a "poignant and powerful first feature" that takes viewers on "a journey that is at once hyperrealist and dreamlike" into the mangroves of Recife, Brazil.

In the Cineasti del Presente section, the Best Emerging Director Award went to two-time Tiger Short Award-winning filmmaker Beatrice Gibson () for the CineMart 2024-presented La Nuit (At Night).

Described by Screen's Amber Wilkinson as "atmospheric and allusive", the film is set over a single night in Paris, following six women navigating the anxiety of the city after dark as dream, fiction and reality blur into one.

13/08/2026

“An act of resistance”: HBF Empowerment Award-winning Tear Gas has its world premiere in Locarno 🏆

Georgian filmmaker Uta Beria has spoken to The Hollywood Reporter on his HBF+Europe-supported feature Tear Gas following its five year production journey.

He presented the work – shot inside anti-government protests in Georgia – at IFFR Pro's work-in-progress platform Darkroom in 2025 where it picked up two prizes including the inaugural HBF Empowerment Award, worth €10,000.

Beria told THR that with funding restrictions placed on the film in Georgia, the team cut their budget, raised the remaining funds themselves and completed the film independently.

“Every member of the crew showed remarkable bravery, and I couldn’t be more grateful for their commitment under such extraordinary circumstances,” said Beria.

Read the full interview: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tear-gas-georgia-fiction-film-shot-in-real-protests-locarno-1236663941/