Berlinale's World Cinema Fund's 2 Oscar Nominated Films

Two Oscar nominations - one for La teta asustada and one for Ajami - marks the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund as an early arbiter of the world's taste in the finest of international cinema.

Congratulations to directors Claudia Llosa, Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti on the Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film 2010. The winner of the Golden Bear 2009, La Teta Asustada (Milk of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa from Peru, and Ajami by Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti (Israel) were both funded by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund.


World Cinema Fund Day at the Berlinale: Feb 17, 2010, 11am-2 pm at the Filmhaus, Potsdamer Str. 2, 4th floor

“Strategy makes sense, and passion does, too…”

The WCF Day will once again provide an opportunity to learn more about the programme, successes, funding strategies, films, initiatives, and partners of the WCF. On this occasion the World Cinema Fund will present its new promotional DVD edition that has been made possible with the special additional support of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. On the same day, the WCF invites all its friends and fans as well as representatives of the industry and press to a panel discussion on Iranian Cinemawith Rafi Pitts, Jafar Panahi, Reza Haeri, Asghar Farhadi, Mohammad Farokhmanesch and cultural theorist Maryam Mameghanian-Prenzlow.

In co-operation with the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes) the Berlin International Film Festival has set up the World Cinema Fund (WCF) to support filmmakers from transition countries. Until 2007, the geographical focus has been on Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. In February 2007, the WCF announced an expansion of the focus regions: since summer 2007, film projects from South East Asia and the Caucasus are also eligible for support from the WCF.

Wonderful and unusual films have been made thanks to the support of the WCF. These films, which have been shown at international festivals and in cinemas in several countries, were screened for the Berlin public and cinema enthusiasts with an interest in very special films: strong, authentic stories from Latin America, Africa, the Near/Middle East and Central- and South East Asia as well as innovative visual ideas – artistically sophisticated and internationally successful at the same time.

Seven New Projects funded by the World Cinema Fund
At the 10th session of the World Cinema Fund (WCF) jury on June 26 and 27, five new film projects were selected for production funding; and two films, for distribution funding. The WCF jury – film scholar and curator Viola Shafik (Germany/Egypt), programme coordinator of Swiss Television Alberto Chollet (Switzerland), dramaturge Alby James (England), as well as WCF project managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno – made their selection from more than 100 submissions from a total of 40 countries. They awarded funds totalling 222,500 euros.

The One Man Village was selected for distribution funding

Find more information on these and other WCF-supported film projects under Funded Projects Production respectively Funded Projects Distribution.

German Federal Cultural Foundation will continue to support the World Cinema Fund
The Berlinale is pleased that the board of the German Federal Cultural Foundation under the chairmanship of Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann agreed at its last meeting to extend its financing of the WCF until the end of 2011.

World Cinema Fund with Four Films in Cannes

The World Cinema Fund (WCF) is pleased to report that four of the films it helped support have been invited to the Festival de Cannes (13 to 24 May 2009).

The following films will be showing in the official programme of the Un Certain Regard section:

The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerra (Columbia/Germany/the Netherlands)

Independencia by Raya Martins (France/Germany/Philippines)

Directors’ Fortnight:
Ajami by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani (Israel/Germany)

Critics’ Week:
Huacho by Alejandro Almendras Fernandez (France/Chile/Germany)

Berlinale 2009:
WCF film La Teta Asustada wins the Golden Bear as does is star lead actres Magaly Solier.

The Peruvian-Spanish film La teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa, was awarded the Golden Bear for Best Film by the International Jury 2009. The film which received WCF production funding in November 2006, had its world premiere in the Competition of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival.