Cate Blanchett and the Worldwide Movie Pageant Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund have introduced the 5 recipients of the Displacement Movie Fund, a brand new quick movie grant scheme first unveiled in the course of the 2025 version of the pageant earlier this 12 months.
Spearheaded by actor and producer Blanchett, who can be a International Goodwill Ambassador for UN refugee company UNHCR, along with IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund, the initiative goals to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a confirmed monitor file in creating genuine storytelling concerning the experiences of displaced folks.
On this pilot model of the Fund – which is backed by a coalition of main movie business specialists, creators, enterprise leaders and philanthropists – every of the nominated filmmakers will probably be bestowed with a manufacturing grant of €100,000. The finished tasks could have their World Premieres at IFFR 2026.
The 5 recipient filmmakers and their tasks are Silk Highway by Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine), Whispers of a Burning Scent by Mo Harawe (Somalia, Austria), Allies in Exile by Hasan Kattan (Syria), an untitled challenge by Mohamad Rasoulof (Iran), and Feminine Health of Kabul by Shahrbanoo Sadat (Afghanistan).
“Displacement could disrupt careers, however for artists it doesn’t diminish the drive to inform pressing, human tales. In a time of rising division, movie affords a strong counterforce to remind us of our shared humanity. I can’t wait to see what these distinctive filmmakers convey to life – whether or not addressing displacement immediately, or exploring the common threads that unite us,” stated Blanchett.
Er Gorbach, who received the directing award within the World Cinema Dramatic Competitors on the 2022 Sundance Movie Pageant for her movie Klondike.
Silk Highway is billed as Ukraine–Europe street film a couple of younger Ukrainian lady whose household has been torn aside by struggle: whereas her kids stay in Europe, she and her husband stay in Kyiv, working in a kids’s hospital because the struggle goes on.
Harawe was in Cannes final 12 months with The Village Subsequent to Paradise, which was chosen for the Un Sure Regard part.
Whispers of a Burning Scentis ready in opposition to on the day of a pivotal courtroom listening to, as a quiet man faces the unraveling of his marriage and the judgment of his stepchildren, whereas trying to find solace in what as soon as gave his life that means.
Kattan is bestknown as theco-director of Final Males in Aleppo, which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards and secured the celebrated Jury Prize on the Sundance Movie Pageant.
His quick, Allies in Exile, revolves round two Syrian filmmakers, certain by a 14-year friendship cast in struggle, who doc their shared exile within the UK asylum system – till one is granted refuge and the opposite returns to a modified Syria, reflecting the not possible decisions refugees face immediately.
Rasoulof hit the headlines forward of the Cannes Movie Pageant final 12 months after he was fled Iran for Germany, after being sentenced by the Islamic Republic to flogging advert eight years in jail, following the collection of his movie The Seed of the Sacred Fig in the primary competitors on the 2024 Cannes Movie Pageant.
His untitled quick, is ready within the wake of the dying of an exiled author, as his household tries to fulfil his want to be buried in accordance with his will, which ends up in sudden problems.
Sadat, who fled her house metropolis of Kabul in 2021 after the Taliban took management, first broke by way of her debut movie Wolf and Sheep received the highest award within the 2016 Administrators’ Fortnight part at Cannes.
Feminine Health of Kabul is ready inside a crumbling Kabul fitness center, which opens to girls for just a few hours every day, Afghan housewives in scarves and lengthy clothes reclaim not simply their our bodies, but additionally their spirits, their bonds, and their sense of self.
Blanchett will be a part of Er Gorbach and Harawe, and Rajendra Roy, Chief Curator of Movie on the The Museum of Trendy Artwork (NY), in a panel occasion on the Cannes Movie Pageant, hosted by IFFR Managing Director to Clare Stewart to deal with the evolution and function of the fund, the recipient filmmakers and their tasks, and wider business actions in help of displaced filmmakers.
Rajendra Roy can be Co-Chair of the Worldwide Movie Award Govt Committee, Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences which just lately introduced that Academy Award® eligibility for the Greatest Worldwide Function Movie Award has been expanded to incorporate filmmakers with refugee or asylum standing.
“The Displacement Movie Fund responds to the urgency of a rising international disaster, and is underpinned by a perception that movie continues to be a power for constructive change,” stated Clare Stewart, and Tamara Tatishvili, Head of the Hubert Bals Fund. “The HBF is dedicated to supporting funding that creates an affect, and the Displacement Movie Fund aligns completely with the HBF’s mission and legacy. We’re honoured to be entrusted with the administration of this fund, and to work with these distinctive filmmakers to help the realisation of their tasks.”
Commenting on the Cannes Movie Pageant’s internet hosting of the panel occasion, Delegate Basic Thierry Frémaux stated: “The Cannes Movie Pageant is proud and honoured to host the Displacement Movie Fund panel, giving voice to artists whose journeys have been marked by exile and displacement. By embracing their views, the Pageant reaffirms — greater than ever — its function as a refuge: a house for many who see cinema as a free and common act, one which transmits, resists, and bears witness to the world round us.”
For the Displacement Movie Fund’s choice course of, a longlist of filmmakers was decided by the Nominations Committee, which included founding members Cate Blanchett, Isaac Kwaku Fokuo, Echo Quan, Ke Huy Quan, Ayman Tamer, and Koji Yanai, along with Droom en Daad’s Wim Pijbes, IFFR’s Clare Stewart and HBF’s Tamara Tatishvili.
The Choice Committee, who then decided the ultimate recipients, was chaired by Cate Blanchett and included journalist and documentarian Waad Al Kateab (We Dare to Dream, For Sama), actor, producer and musician Cynthia Erivo (Depraved, Drift), director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland (Inexperienced Border), IFFR Pageant Director Vanja Kaludjercic, educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee), and Amin Nawabi [alias], an LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who’s Jonas’ inspiration for the story of Flee.
The Founding Companions of the Displacement Movie Fund’s pilot scheme are Grasp Thoughts, Uniqlo, Droom en Daad, the Tamer Household Basis and Amahoro Coalition whose beneficiant contributions enabled the scheme. The HBF is the Administration Associate and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Company, is supporting the challenge as Strategic Associate.
