Latin American filmmakers Lisandro Alonso and Mariana Rondón were among the five winners of this year's World Cinema Fund totaling $200,000 in funding. A total of 130 submissions were received for this round from 48 countries.
Argentine director Alonso (La libertad, Liverpool) was awarded €50,000 ($64,000 approximately) for his most recent film not yet titled starring Viggo Mortensen. The film is a co-production between Alonso's 4L company, Kamoli Films from Denmark, Mantarraya Films from Mexico, and Fortuna Films from the Netherlands.
Venezuelan director Rondón (Postcard from Leningrad) was awarded €30,000 ($38,000 approximately) for Pelo malo (pictured), her latest project, a co-production between Sudaca Films (Venezuela) and Imagen Latina (Perú),
The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with the Goethe Institut, with the support of the Federal Foreign Office.
Since its establishment in October 2004, the WCF has granted production or distribution backing to a total of 111 projects, selected from 2,011 submissions from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, and the Caucasus.
