The upcoming Rotterdam Film Festival has selected 36 filmprojects to receive funding from the Hubert Bals Fund - as a record thirtycompleted fund-supported titles are set to screen at the festival itself (January25-Feb 5).

The 36 projects, which include new works from Babak Payami,Josue Mendez, He Jianjun and Lisandro Alonso, will receive a total of almosthalf a million euros from the fund, which has supported over 530 titles sinceits launch in 1988 (with an annual purse of Euros 1.2 million, it is aimed atassisting developing countries or countries in the Southern hemisphere andholds two selection rounds each year).

The35th Rotterdam Festival is also expecting a bumper harvest of 30 completedBals-supported titles. Some, such as Carlos Reygadas' Battle In Heaven,have already screened at festivals including Cannes, but new works fromUruguay, Brazil, Armenia and Indonesia are ready to screen at Rotterdam,accompanied by their directors. World premieres include La Perrera (The DogPound), by Manuel Nieto Zas and The Nightly Song Of The Travellers,written by Chapour Haghighat.

Forthe current Hubert Bals funding round, seven film projects are to receivepost-production funding and 20 filmmakers will receive a script-developmentgrant. Titles in line for post-production assistance include two projects fromThe Philippines (Heremias, by Lav Diaz, and Indio Nacional byRaya Martin) and Argentina (Glue, by Alexis Dos Santos and ElCustodio, by Rodrigo Moreno).