Having rethought its industry activities in 2016, bundling all its industry initiatives within IFFR PRO, the Hubert Bals Fund presented its new policies and guidelines last January. Wishing to improve the impact of its support and to address the current needs of filmmakers and the industry, innovations include two separate schemes for script and project development: HBF Bright Future for feature films by debut and second-time filmmakers, and HBF Voices for feature films by filmmakers more advanced in their careers. The support for four projects has been made possible by the NFF+HBF co-development scheme.

Within the HBF Voices scheme, the new projects by Babak Jalali, who won the IFFR Hivos Tiger Award 2016 for Radio Dreams, Ricardo Silva (Navajazo, 2014) and Deepak Rauniyar (White Sun [+leggi anche:
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Among the HBF Bright Future projects receiving €10,000 are the feature films by Tiger Award winning director Sivaroj Kongsakul (Eternity), South-African filmmaker John Trengove (The Wound [+leggi anche:
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For the NFF+HBF co-production scheme - a joint initiative by the Netherlands Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund - film projects coproduced by two Dutch producers were selected, both for the first time. The team behind The Reports on Sarah and Saleem [+leggi anche:
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Head of IFFR PRO, Marit van den Elshout, on the selection: "It has been an exciting selection process in the new IFFR PRO setup and it is good to see that we have actual results from the connections we aim to make between funding (HBF), mentoring on projects (Boost NL) and our market (CineMart). It will be exciting to follow these projects throughout the different stages and to offer support where needed through the various other IFFR PRO initiatives."

Script & Project Development: Bright Future

Baby - Marcelo Caetano (Brazil)
Estate - John Trengove (South Africa) (supported via NFF+HBF co-development scheme)
Feathers [+leggi anche:
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My Dear Valentín, Jazmín López (Argentina)
Nasir [+leggi anche:
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La niña del rayo - Luz Olivares Capelle (Argentina/Austria)
Regretfully at Dawn - Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand)
The Stranger - Yang Zhengfan (China)

Script & Project Development: Voices

Hymns - Babak Jalali (Mexico) (supported via NFF+HBF co-development scheme)
Raja - Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal) (supported via NFF+HBF co-development scheme)
Sleepwalk - Ricardo Silva (Mexico/USA)

Selection NFF+HBF Co-production Scheme

Almost in Love - Leonardo Brzezicki (Argentina/Brazil/Chile/Netherlands) (Dutch co-producer: Keplerfilm)
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem [+leggi anche:
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