Cate Blanchett, IFFR’s Hubert Bals Launch Displaced Filmmakers Fund
Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is teaming up with the Rotterdam film festival’s Hubert Bals Fund to launch a new program to support filmmakers displaced by war and other catastrophes.
The Displacement Film Fund, which Blanchett, a global Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, will launch at the Rotterdam festival this year, will provide funding for displaced filmmakers to work on short film projects.
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The pilot program will offer grants of €100,000 ($104,000) each to five displaced filmmakers to make original short films.
Blanchett will head up the selection committee to pick the filmmakers, joined by Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, documentarians Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee) and Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama), director Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), Rotterdam festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, and Amin Nawabi [alias], the LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who was Rasmussen’s inspiration for the Oscar-nominated Flee.
“Film can drop you into the texture and realities of someone’s life like no other art form,” said Blanchett in a statement. “When people are forced to leave their homes, they lose access to the most basic support, but as artists, they also lose access to the means to make work at a time when it is more vital than ever.”
A nominations committee will select a longlist of filmmakers for funding, with the final five chosen by Blanchett and the selection committee. The selected filmmakers will be unveiled at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The finished films will have their world premieres at the Rotterdam festival next year.
“This project represents not only an opportunity to amplify underrepresented voices but also a vital step towards empowering filmmakers to share their stories of resilience, identity, and hope,” said Al-Kateab.
The fund, backed by a coalition of leading film industry experts, creators, business leaders and philanthropists, will have its official launch at the Rotterdam festival on Saturday, Feb. 1. The idea for the project came from the UNHCR’s Global Refugee Forum but dovetails nicely with the Hubert Bals Fund, named after the first director of the Rotterdam festival, which, since its launch in 1988, has bankrolled hundreds of projects from regions with underdeveloped, or non-existent, film industries.
According to the UNHCR, one in every 67 people on earth has been forcibly displaced due to conflict, war, or persecution.
Should the pilot program prove successful, organizers hope to establish it as a permanent fixture in the international film funding landscape, to help displaced filmmakers to share their stories with global audiences.
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