Ethiopian filmmaker Beza Hailu Lemma‘s The Last Tears of the Deceased, Nigerian filmmaker, Damilola Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi, and Moroccan filmmaker, Asmae El Moudir’s Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me have been selected as part of the recipients of the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF).
The HBF is the international co-financing arm of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), supporting filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe.
The platform has supported groundbreaking film projects from around the world, particularly from regions with limited film funding and infrastructure. Kenneth Gyang’s Confusion Na Wa, Moise Ganza’s Tears, Inadelso Cossa’s Mwadia, Amil Shivji’d Last Cow, and other African titles have benefited from the fund.
Every year,The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) announces eight projects awarded €60,000 each through its HBF+Europe support schemes: five through Minority Co-production Support and three through Post-production Support.
Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi was selected one of the three recipients of the HBF+Europe Post-production Support. Dear Ajayi which finished production in Ibadan is a Nigerian-German production set in 1990s Nigeria and follows two estranged sisters caring for their paralyzed mother while navigating grief, ambition, and fractured family bonds. Orimogunje’s debut, For Maria Ebun Pataki, premiered at Film Africa 2020 and won an Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award.
For the HBF+Europe Minority Co-Production Support El Moudir’s Don’t Let the Sun Go Up On Me which has production ties in Morocco, France, Norway, Denmark and Chile is a hybrid documentary following Meriem, who carries forward the dreams of her late sister Fatimazahra – a woman with xeroderma pigmentosum who lived nocturnally. El Moudir’s debut The Mother of All Lies took the Directing Prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2023.
The second African project is Lemma’s The Last Tears of the Deceased with co-production in Ethiopia, Canada, Germany and France. The film is a dreamlike journey across Ethiopia in which a newly ordained priest sets out to uncover the truth about his own childhood death. Lemma’s short Alazar (2024) premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week and won awards at the Red Sea Film Festival and FESPACO.
