The Hubert Bals Fund

“Making a film is no small undertaking,” says Marianne Bhalotra, Co-ordinator of the Hubert Bals Fund. “Expensive and complicated, the process includes such tasks as securing funding, researching, writing and finding the equipment and technical expertise to shoot, edit, mix sound and print the film.”

The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam was created and named after the festival’s charismatic and legendary founder, Hubert Bals, following his sudden death in 1988. It was under his inspired leadership that the first festival - then called 'Film International' - was organized in 1972. From the beginning, it profiled itself as a promoter of alternative, innovative and non-commercial films and recorded a steady growth despite financial difficulties in the mid-80s.

The Fund is used for supporting talented and innovative filmmakers from Asia, Africa and Latin America and helping them translate their dreams into reality. Its resources may be modest but it does succeed in providing that crucial link in the completion of a film project, particularly in two pivotal points of the creative process: research / script-writing and post-production. Its budget of one million Euros allows it to make individual grants of up to 10,000 Euros for script and project development, and 30,000 Euros for post-production. It also gives 15,000 Euros for distribution costs in the country of origin. For, as Simon Field, the Festival’s outgoing Artistic Director says: “A viewing public is what really brings the film into existence.”

In the past 15 years, HBF has helped fund nearly 470 productions, including Indian projects. 60 percent of these films have been completed or are in various stages of production. The Rotterdam Festival has a regular section called Hubert Bals Fund Harvest where HBF-supported films are screened every year. This year, the section comprised 24 features and two shorts – some of them co-produced – from 19 countries.

The Fund has, over the years, diversified its work. It has now started supporting training activities for filmmakers in developing countries. It participates in script-writing workshops at the Pusan, Sithengi, Carthage and Buenos Aires Film Festivals, and confers the HBF Script Award of 10,000 Euros to the most promising project. HBF-supported films are also selected for Rotterdam’s VPRO (Dutch TV Channel) Tiger Awards competition.

The Fund’s approach, says Bhalotra, is “pragmatic and flexible”. While it closely scrutinises the financial aspects of a project under consideration, the decisive factors are content and artistic value. “Proposals that reveal an original use of cinema language and provide an original perspective on the country concerned,” she explains, “will have a distinct advantage in the selection process.”

Ideally, a submitted project should contribute to the development of the local film industry. The Fund’s contribution can be used to give a final shape to a proposal, which contains a professional script and a realistic budget, and which can be presented to financial backers. The money can also be used to tie up a project’s loose ends, thanks to the HBF’S contribution towards post-production.

Backed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch non-governmental development organizations – HIVOS, NCDO and DOEN Foundation – and the Dutch public network, NPS, HBF is pro-active in the area of distribution too. It asks for the distribution rights in the Benelux countries of the films it supports, so that completed films can be shown in the cinema halls or television channels of these countries. Equally, it helps in their world-wide promotion. It does not, however, generate profits, and is willing to sell these rights if there is any interest in the market.

Today, many international film festivals keep a close eye on completed HBF-supported films and select them for their programmes. In 2003, top film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Toronto and Pusan – among others – screened films that had received assistance from HBF

Osian’s-Cinefan is delighted and proud to collaborate with the Hubert Bals Fund and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in bringing you a package of remarkable films from Asia made with the Fund’s assistance, films that traverse a broad and intense spectrum of emotion, throwing light on situations that are comic or compassionate, surreal or absurd, poignant or heart-breaking. Through these films, Osian’s-Cinefan continues its endeavour to open doors to the cinemas and cultures of Asia.

Click here to read about the films screened at the festival in this section.