The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the projects that will receive this year’s grants from its Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), which supports films from less-developed regions. The fund picked 15 feature projects from more than 900 submissions, selecting work from filmmakers from across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.
This year’s selection includes the first HBF-backed project from Tanzania, the satire Last Cow from director Amil Shivij, whose feature debut Tug of War screened in Toronto in 2021 and was Tanzania’s official Oscar submission. It was picked for this year’s Locarno film festival and will screen in the Open Doors sidebar.
Other African projects this year include Mwadia, a magic-realist drama on Mozambique’s colonial past and present trauma; the feature debut of documentary filmmaker Inadelso Cossa (The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder); Tears, the debut feature from Rwandan director Moise Ganza; and Coumba, the new film from Senegalese director Mamadou Dia, whose HBF-backed debut, Nafi’s Father, won the Golden Leopard at the 2019 Locarno film festival and was Senegal’s official entry for the Oscars.
IFFR alumni talent can be found throughout this year’s selection, with new features from Syrian director Farida Baqi (The Rapture), Indonesia’s Timoteus Anggawan Kusno (Orphaned Atlas), Kazakhstan filmmaker Renata Dzhalo (Nobody to See Us), Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu (Lotus Feet) and Brazil’s Stephanie Ricci (Boca da noite) among the 2025 HBF recipients.
The selected directors will receive a €10,000 ($11,760) grant each to help develop their projects into finished features.
In addition to its regular fund, the HBF launched two new development schemes this year. Together with two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, the HBF in January announced the Displacement Film Fund, offering grants of €100,000 ($104,000) each to five filmmakers, displaced by war or conflict, to make original shorts.
A jury, made up of Blanchett, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, documentarians Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee) and Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama), director Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), Rotterdam festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram and Amin Nawabi [alias], the LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who was Rasmussen’s inspiration for his Oscar-nominated documentary Flee, announced the first fund grantees in Cannes this year.
Also in Cannes, the HBF announced a cooperation with the three leading Brazilian film promotion bodies — Spcine, RioFilme, Projeto Paradiso — launching HBF+Brazil: Co-development Support, a three-year initiative to provide early development funding for up to nine fiction films, with €10,000 ($11,760) grants each. The submission deadline for HBF+Brazil projects, on IFFR.com, is Sept. 15.
Full list of 2025 Herbert Bals Fund development support projects
Amateur, Carlos Díaz Lechuga, Cuba, Spain
The Appalling Human Voice of the Animals, Neritan Zinxhiria, Greece, Albania
Boca da noite, Stephanie Ricci, Brazil
Coumba, Mamadou Dia, Senegal
Girl With a Camera, Xiaoxuan Jiang, Hong Kong, China
The Immigrants, Suman Mukhopadhyay, India
Last Cow, Amil Shivji, Tanzania, Canada
Lotus Feet, Amanda Nell Eu, Malaysia
Moto, Chris Chong Chan Fui, Malaysia
Mwadia, Inadelso Cossa, Mozambique
Nobody to See Us, Renata Dzhalo, Kazakhstan, France, Moldova
Orphaned Atlas, Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, Indonesia
The Rapture, Farida Baqi, Syria, Lebanon, Germany, Netherlands
Tears, Moise Ganza, Rwanda
Where Shadows Wait, Arya Rothe, India, Italy