– Eight co-productions have been awarded €60,000 through the HBF+Europe support scheme, including the latest project by Cannes winner Asmae El Moudir
Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me by Asmae El Moudir
IFFR’s famed Hubert Bals Fund has revealed the latest eight projects to be supported by its HBF+Europe scheme, with five receiving Minority Co-production Support and three Post-production Support. The scheme, supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, encourages European producers to participate as co-production partners with filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. Co-production Support provides advanced funding for the films going into production, and Post-production Support helps consolidate funding when shooting concludes.
The most high-profile project in the batch, receiving Minority Co-Production Support, is Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me (Morocco/France/Norway/Denmark/Chile) by Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, whose innovative documentary The Mother of All Lies won both Best Director in Un Certain Regard and the Œil d’or at Cannes in 2023. Described as a “hybrid documentary odyssey”, the film follows a woman called Meriem as she carries forward the dreams of her late sister Fatimazahra, who suffered from a rare genetic disease that makes sunlight life-threatening. With the help of other sufferers of the illness, she sets out to fulfil Fatimazahra’s dream: to live normally and visit her long-distance love, Alex, in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, where the polar night lasts for weeks. The applicant producer is France’s Haut et Court Doc, and the project has just won the Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award in the industry strand of CPH:DOX (see the news).
Also of note, receiving the same kind of backing, is Nightsong (Brazil/France/Portugal) by Brazilian director Maya Da-Rin, whose last feature, The Fever [+see also:
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interview: Maya Da-Rin
film profile], was well received in Locarno 2019’s competition. The applicant producer is France’s Still Moving. The other recipients of Minority Co-Production Support are Bleach (Kosovo/Bulgaria/Albania/Montenegro) by Kaltrina Krasniqi (Vera Dreams of the Sea [+see also:
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interview: Kaltrina Krasniqi
film profile]), whose applicant producer is Bulgaria’s Portokal; Hum (Philippines/USA/Poland/Germany) by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, whose applicant producer is Germany’s Oma Inge Film GmbH; and The Last Tears of the Deceased (Ethiopia/Canada/Germany/France) by Beza Hailu Lemma, whose applicant producer is Germany’s Die Gesellschaft DGS.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Kamila Andini is receiving Post-production Support for Four Seasons in Java (Indonesia/France/Netherlands/Norway), whose applicant producer is France’s Ici et Là Productions. The project follows up her well-travelled 2022 Berlin competition-premiered Before, Now & Then. The two other titles receiving this kind of backing are Dear Ajayi (Nigeria/Germany) by Damilola Orimogunje, whose applicant producer is Germany’s Mayana Films; and Zemfo (Armenia/Italy/Switzerland) by Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren Malakyan, whose applicant producer is Italy’s Okta Film.
Tamara Tatishvili, head of the Hubert Bals Fund, said: “The two 2026 editions we’ve just witnessed of IFFR and the Berlinale have brought the impact of our HBF+Europe schemes into sharp focus, with Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s HBF+Europe: Post-production-supported Variations on a Theme [+see also:
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film profile] taking home the Tiger Award from IFFR, and Danielle Arbid’s Only Rebels Win [+see also:
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interview: Danielle Arbid
film profile] opening the Panorama section at the Berlinale. These results reflect exactly what targeted co-funding supported by Creative Europe can achieve. In this new selection, we are particularly proud to support a project from Kosovo via their Bulgarian applicant producer – part of a growing engagement from low-production-capacity countries that we are pleased to encourage.”
