US charitable foundation The Global Film Initiative has named the line-up of award recipients for its inaugural granting programme. Six grant recipients were selected from 37 submissions representing 12 countries and will receive completion funds of between $20,000 and $40,000 for their features from the Initiative.

The Initiative, founded by Noah Cowan, also ensures that the granted films will be distributed in the US in a travelling film series which premieres in Nov this year beginning in New York City and going through to Oct 2004. The announcement was made by Initiative chairperson Susan Coulter.

The granting programme was inspired by the Hubert Bals Fund, the funding body created by the Rotterdam Film Festival. It selects films "which make use of the power of local storytelling traditions as well as film-making which displays innovative use of the cinematic medium."

The selected films are The Buffalo Boy (Vietnam) directed by Minh Nguyen-Vo; In The Empty City (Angola) directed by Maria Joao G, On Each Side (Argentina) directed by Hugo Daniel Grosso, Aminata (Kenya) directed by Bob Nyanja, Another Man's Garden (Mozambique) directed by Joao Luis Sol Carvalho and Embankment Street (China) directed by Li Yu.