Dutch producers Volya Films and Waterland Film win co-pro support

Each receives a grant of €50,000 from the Netherlands Film Fund for co-producing a Hubert Bals Fund-supported film.

Volya Films co-produces Vietnamese feature Big Father, Small Father, and Waterland Film co-produces Philippines picture Women of the Weeping River.

Big Father, Small Father is the second film by Phan Dang Di, whose debut Bi, Don’t Be Afraid premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Big Father, Small Father is the story of a group of friends struggling to survive in the overpopulated city of Saigon during the Asian economic crisis of the 1990s.

The film is produced by Vblock Media (Vietnam) and co-produced by Acrobat Films (France) and Volya Films.

Phan Dang Di received a script and project development grant for this film from the Hubert Bals Fund in 2011.

Women of the Weeping River is Sheron Dayoc’ssecond feature film, for which he received a HBF script and project development grant earlier this year.

His first film Ways of the Sea premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.

Women of the Weeping River recounts the tale of two women attempting to put an end to the blood vengeance cycle in which their families are trapped, as a result of a long-standing dispute about land ownership on the Philippine island of Mindanao.

The film is produced by Southern Lantern Studios (Philippines) and co-produced by Hautlesmains Production (France), Mogador Films (Germany), and Waterland Film.

Now in its eighth year, the Hubert Bals Fund Plus programme of the Netherlands Film Fund and International Film Festival Rotterdam gets Dutch producers involved in HBF-supported, international co-productions.

Earlier this year, Dutch companies Circe Films and Fortuna Films were selected for Hubert Bals Fund Plus.

Circe Film co-produces the film Rey by Niles Atallah (Chile), and Fortuna Films co-produces La última tierra, the debut film by Pablo Lamar (Paraguay).