The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (WCF) has backed nine feature projects including the new film from Tiger Stripes director Amanda Nell Eu.
WCF’s 43rd funding round has awarded €365,000 in production grants to projects from Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ecuador, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Philippines, Senegal and Turkey.
They include Lotus Feet, the latest project from Nell Eu, whose Tiger Stripes won the Critics’ Week grand prize in 2023. Set in British Malaya in 1938, it follows a second wife struggling to adapt to life within a powerful family on a remote rubber estate. It has been awarded €40,000.
Other projects selected include Ana Cristina Barragán’s Amapola, about a group of teenage survivors of human trafficking living in a remote shelter. Barragán’s previous film Hiedra was in Venice’s Horizons section last year.
Apolline Traoré’s The Guardian Of The Green Ocean has also received funding. It follows a woman who must embrace her destiny as a guardian to protect her forest after oil is discovered there. Traoré’s Sira premiered at the 2023 Berlinale in the Panorama section.
Among the six first features to receive funding is Hum from Filipino filmmaker Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan. It is about a native horse rider gifted with the rare ability to mimic animal sounds who must track down an eco-terrorist in the forest.
The WCF jury comprised Moroccan film critic and curator Ali Benzekri; German festival director Susanne Bieger; Brazilian producer and festival programmer Tatiana Leite; and the head of the WCF, Sata Cissokho, who presided over her first session since taking over the leadership of the fund at the end of 2025.
She said: “We have received a record-breaking number of applications and high-quality projects. We are particularly proud of accompanying six first features, while also renewing our trust in the works of previous WCF directors.”
Production Funding
WCF Classic
Birthday, dir. Lara Zeidan
Prods. Road2Films (Lebanon), Sévana Films (France), Couronne Nord (Canada), Tabi360 (Jordan), Mayana Films (Germany) - €60,000
Goodbye For Now, dir. Kasım Ördek
Prods. Parda Film (Turkey), Die Gesellschaft DGS – Michael Henrichs Filmproduktion (Germany), Kidam Production (France), The Film Kitchen (Netherlands) - €35,000
The Guardian Of The Green Ocean, dir. Apolline Traoré
Prods: Les Films Selmon (Burkina Faso), Araucania Films (France), Productions Colorées (Canada) - €40,000
Hum, dir. Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Prods: Daluyong Studios (Philippines), Prima Materia Pictures (US), Oma Inge Film (Germany), Big Wave Films (Poland) - €50,000
Little Phnom Penh, dir. Chheangkea
Prods: NoMad Productions (France), Anti-Archive (Cambodia) - €35,000
Lotus Feet, dir. Amanda Nell Eu
Prods. Ghost Grrrl Pictures (Malaysia), Weydemann Bros. Film (Germany), KawanKawan Media (Indonesia), Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan) - €40,000
WCF Europe
Amapola, dir. Ana Cristina Barragán
Prods. Trópico Cine and Botón Films (Ecuador), Graal Films (Greece), Ciné-Sud Promotion (France), Klaxon Cultura Audiovisual (Brazil), Clara Films (Chile) - €40,000
Fagadaga, dir. Yoro Mbaye
Prods: Astou Production (Senegal), In Vivo Films (France), Yzanakio (Canada) - €40,000
Waiting For Winter, dir. Farid Ahmad
Prods. Noyakar Productions (Bangladesh), House on Fire (France) - €25,000
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