Vimukthi wins Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund
View(s):Cannes awarded Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara was among the recipients of the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s (IFFR) HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme for 2022.
Vimuktih’s newest film project “Turtle’s Gaze on Spying Stars” (France/Sri Lanka, House on Fire), a story set on a mysterious resort where the protagonist must quarantine and reckon with his past on his return to the country was among the six winners of the fund.
Six projects by filmmakers from Argentina, Egypt, Guatemala, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Yemen were selected out of 25 applications and each winner was awarded a contribution of around €60,000 ($60,854). In 2005 Vimukthi won the Prince Claus award at the IFFR for his debut ‘SulangaEnuPinisa’ or “The Forsaken Land” which also won the Cannes Caméra d’Or or Golden Camera, a first ever Sri Lankan to achieve such a feat.
Vimukthi Jayasundara
Studied cinema at Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, in France Vimuktho also directed ‘Between Two Worlds,’ (2009), ‘Mushrooms’, ‘Light in the Yellow Breathing Space’ (2012), ‘Chatrak’ (2011) and ‘Vide pour l’amour’ (2003).
Founded in 1988, the Hubert Bals Fund was named after the first director of International Film Festival Rotterdam: Hubert ‘Huub’ Bals. In 1972, Hubert Bals founded the IFFR and became its first director, until his death in 1988. During the first festival years, the plan to establish a film fund already existed. The idea was to help filmmakers – mainly from what was then called the Third World – to get their film projects off the ground. After Bals’ sudden death in 1988, it was decided to name the fund in his honour and so the Hubert Bals Fund was born.
Over more than 30 years, the fund has developed a distinguished taste for filmmakers with a forward-looking artistic vision. The HBF focuses on supporting filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. Oftentimes, HBF-supported films premiere at major film festivals, reaching wide audiences and finding significant critical success.
The HBF has been especially helpful for filmmakers from countries where freedom of speech and a solid film infrastructure are lacking.
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