Hubert Bals Fund: Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio and 23 Others Receive Grants

This year’s Palme d’or winner (Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) is a glowing example of exact purpose that the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam serves: supporting national cinemas and filmmakers through various stages of production.

The Fund’s Fall 2010 Selection Round includes one of our profiled IONCINEPHILE filmmakers in Mexico’s Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio, who won over critics and film festival prizes (2010 Tiger Award) with Alamar, and who is now in the development phase of his next project entitled, Sombra del arbol (Tree Shade). In total, four projects from Mexico are receiving well-needed coin. Here are the selected projects:

Postproduction & Final Financing
Ausensias (Absences) – Milagros Mumenthaler; Argentina
Black Blood – Miaoyan Zhang; China
Flying Fish – Sanjeewa Pelanwattage; Sri Lanka
The Old Donkey – Li Ruijun; China
Paraísos Artificiales (Artificial Paradises) – Yulene Olaizola; Mexico

Digital Production
If It Is Not Now, Then When? – James Lee; Malaysia
Ang mundo sa panahon ng bakal (Steel is the Earth) – Mes de Guzman; Philippines
Las voces (The Voices) – Carlos Armella; Mexico

Script & Project Development
Cactus Flower – Hala Elkoussy; Egypt
Conurbano – Gregorio Cramer; Argentina
Dos disparos (Two Shots) – Martín Rejtman; Argentina
Mai Morire – Enrique Rivero; Mexico
Marustali – Geethu Mohan Das; India
La mujer de barro (The Mud Woman) – Sergio Castro San-Martín; Chile
Niu Pi San (Oxhide 3) – Liu Jiayin; China
Rey (King) – Niles Atallah; Chile
Sombra del arbol (Tree Shade) – Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio; Mexico
Plemya (The Tribe) – Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy; Ukraine
While Waiting For You – Prasanna Vithanage; Sri Lanka

Distribution
Amakula Mobile Cinema – Amakula Kampala IFF; Uganda
Qarantina – Oday Rasheed; Iraq
Year Without a Summer – Tan Chui Mui; Malaysia

Workshops/Special Projects
Goa Film Bazaar: HBF Award – NFDC ; India
Maisha Filmmakers and Technical Lab – Musarait Kashmiri; Uganda