Concluding its April 2021 selection round, the IDFA Bertha Fund Europe – International Co-production funding scheme will grant €40,000 to six selected projects in addition to offering tailored support through IDFA’s Filmmaker Support department and year-round opportunities for connecting with IDFA’s professional network.
“Building on the program’s aim to boost collaboration between independent European producers and producers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, the new selection includes applicants from a wide European spread with projects from countries such as Romania, Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The Fund is pleased to support these creative collaborations with a strong majority of female filmmakers working on poignant and timely stories,” says an IDFA statement.
The selected projects are:
Against the Tide (France/India) Dir. Sarvnik Kaur. Co-prod. Les Films d’œil sauvage, Snooker Club Films Pvt. Ltd., A Little Anarky Films.
Rakesh (30) is a guardian of Bombay’s Koli fishing tradition. His beloved cousin Ganesh (32) has faith only in technology and chases tuna using satellite geo-positioning. Swept up in the turmoil of an overexploited sea, climate change, and the health crisis, will their friendship survive?
Alis (Romania/Colombia/Chile) Dir. Clare Weiskopf and Nicolas van Hemelryck. Co-prod. Defilm, Casatarantula, Pantalla Cines
How do you build a “new life” when you are born without opportunities? Can you leave despair behind and project another destiny? Through a creative act, eight teenage girls who lived on the streets of Bogota give life to a fictional classmate. As reality prevails and fiction fades, the innocent game becomes a descent into hell where their luminous faces guide us to the depths of the dark world they once inhabited only to emerge with new skin. How to imagine a different life, break the cycle of violence, and embrace the future?
Land of Women (Egypt/Denmark) Dir. Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir. Co-prod. Felucca Films and Magma Film and TV
In a conservative village in the south of Egypt, dominated by patriarchy and full of despair, a group of Coptic girls refuses the traditional roles forced upon them by forming all-female street theater troupe. A coming-of-age portrait of girls at the crossroads of their lives.
Memory (Netherlands/Russia/Kosovo) Dir. Vladlena Sandu. Co-prod. Revolver Amsterdam, Mimesis Film, BZ SH.P.K.
Vladena Sandu, a survivor of the war in Chechnya between 1994 and 1998, studies her memories in order to transcend and transform them via cinema.
Rising Up at Night (Belgium/DRC/Germany/Burkina Faso) Dir. Nelson Makengo. Co-prod. Twenty Nine Studio & Production, Mutotu Productions, Film Five, Diam Production
As Congo launches the construction of Africa’s largest power plant on the Congo River, Kinshasa finds itself in darkness and its people struggle for access to light. Despite the challenges, the population is reinventing itself in an environment plagued by violence, colored by the uncertainty of tomorrow, and immersed in the beauty of Kinshasa nights.
Plus: Anonymous project
The IDFA Bertha Fund selection committee included Henrik Underbjerg (IMS, Stray Dogs Productions), Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen (Head of Industry, IDFA), Armi Rae Cacanindin (Cinematografica Films), Estelle Robin You (Point du Jour – Les Films du Balibari), and Isabel Arrate Fernandez (Managing Director, IDFA Bertha Fund).
Elsewhere at IDFA, Laurien ten Houten and Jenni Tuovinen are set to take on new roles within the festival team. Starting this summer, ten Houten will manage IDFA’s industry relations and talks while Tuovinen will supervise the production of IDFA Forum and Docs for Sale. Later, the department will announce a new colleague in the position of Markets Manager. All will continue to work under Head of IDFA Industry Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen and alongside Guest Services Manager David Leenders.
