Berlin World Cinema Fund 2026: Funding News
Berlinale World Cinema Fund allocated €365,000 to projects from nine countries in its latest funding round.
The Berlinale World Cinema Fund (WCF) made nine funding recommendations during its 43rd jury session, allocating €365,000 to projects from Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ecuador, Lebanon, Malaysia, Philippines, Senegal and Turkey.
In addition, three German cinema releases have been supported, with a total funding amount of €28,000.
The selection includes three returning WCF directors: Ana Cristina Barragán, whose last film Hiedra was awarded at Venice in 2025; Amanda Nell Eu, director of the 2023 Cannes-winner Tiger Stripes; and Apolline Traoré, whose Sira premiered at the 2023 Berlinale in the Panorama section.
The selection highlights synergies within the Berlinale Pro ecosystem, with five directors having participated in Berlinale Talents, and two projects showcased at the Berlinale Co-Production Market and Talents Project Market.
This marks the first jury session presided over by Sata Cissokho who took over the leadership of the World Cinema Fund at the end of 2025.
Cissokho commented: “We have received a record-breaking number of applications and high-quality projects. While the process of recommending only nine projects for funding is not easy, it asserts the importance and relevance of the World Cinema Fund’s support to cultural diversity through a variety of topics, perspectives and forms.
We are particularly proud of accompanying six first features, while also renewing our trust in the works of previous WCF directors. After the recent successes of WCF-supported films such as Ben'Imana by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, winner of the Caméra d'Or at Cannes and Elephants In The Fog by Abinash Bikram Shah, winner of the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard, our commitment towards bold and thought-provoking voices is as clear as ever.”
The jury comprised film critic and curator Ali Benzekri (Morocco); festival director Susanne Bieger (Germany); producer and festival programmer Tatiana Leite (Brazil) and Cissokho.
PRODUCTION FUNDING:
WCF CLASSIC:
Birthday, dir: Lara Zeidan (Lebanon)
[Berlinale Talents 2019]
Production: Road2Films (Lebanon), Sévana Films (France), Couronne Nord (Canada), Tabi360 (Jordan), Mayana Films (Germany)
Logline: Beirut, May 7, 2008: A regular after-school day for Razan, who turns fourteen tomorrow, is disrupted by gun battles that erupt throughout the city. Regardless, Razan’s teenage concerns remain unchanged as she tries to enjoy a normal birthday.
Funding: €60,000
Goodbye For Now, dir: Kasım Ördek (Turkey)
Production: Parda Film (Turkey), Die Gesellschaft DGS – Michael Henrichs Filmproduktion (Germany), Kidam Production (France), The Film Kitchen (Netherlands)
Logline: Sevgi, a young woman in her early twenties, living with a gang in the ghetto of Istanbul, starts a dangerous search after her mother mysteriously disappears.
Funding: €35,000
The Guardian Of The Green Ocean, dir: Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso)
Production: Les Films Selmon (Burkina Faso), Araucania Films (France), Productions Colorées (Canada)
Logline: Following the discovery of an oil source threatening her village, and with her past catching up with her, Inaya must embrace her destiny as a guardian to protect her forest, threatened by modernity. But this will come at the cost of her love.
Funding: €40,000
Hum, dir: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Philippines)
[Berlinale Talents 2024 / Talents Project Market 2025]
Production: Daluyong Studios (Philippines), Prima Materia Pictures (US), Oma Inge Film (Germany), Big Wave Films (Poland)
Logline: Esme, a native horse rider gifted with the rare ability to mimic animal sounds, guides Professor Arceo, an animal linguist tasked to track down an eco-terrorist in the forest.
Funding: €50,000
Little Phnom Penh, dir: Chheangkea (Cambodia)
Production: NoMad Productions (France), Anti-Archive (Cambodia)
Logline: A Cambodian woman searches for connection and belonging as a daughter, wife, and mother – while a lost first love continues to find her across time and continents, from post-Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh to early 2000s California.
Funding: €35,000
Lotus Feet, dir: Amanda Nell Eu (Malaysia)
[Berlinale Talents 2018 / Berlinale Co-Production Market 2026]
Production: Ghost Grrrl Pictures (Malaysia), Weydemann Bros. Film GmbH (Germany), KawanKawan Media (Indonesia), Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan)
Logline: British Malaya, 1938. A second wife struggles to adapt to life within a powerful family on a remote rubber estate, ultimately turning to violence to reclaim autonomy over her own body.
Funding: €40,000
WCF EUROPE:
Amapola, dir: Ana Cristina Barragán (Ecuador)
[Berlinale Talents 2018]
Production: Trópico Cine and Botón Films (Ecuador), Graal Films (Greece), Ciné-Sud Promotion (France), Klaxon Cultura Audiovisual (Brazil), Clara Films (Chile)
Logline: A group of teenage survivors of human trafficking live in a remote shelter hidden amidst lush mangroves, where they begin the slow process of healing while caring for the babies born to their captors. Between tenderness, fear and complicity, they forge deep bonds as their stay draws to an end and a strange eclipse approaches.
Funding: €40,000
Fagadaga, dir: Yoro Mbaye (Senegal)
Production: Astou Production (Senegal), In Vivo Films (France), Yzanakio (Canada)
Logline: Ousseynou survives by selling “Fagadaga”, stale bread discarded by the capital, to the people of his village, serving a corrupt employer to feed his family. When his sister-in-law Nafi reopens a traditional bakery, his business is threatened, forcing him into a moral battle between loyalty, survival, and self-respect.
Funding: €40,000
Waiting For Winter, dir: Farid Ahmad (Bangladesh)
[Berlinale Talents 2022. Documentary film]
Production: Noyakar Productions (Bangladesh), House on Fire (France)
Logline: Bangladesh is the largest delta of the world where floods become devastating during summer. When winter arrives, an island emerges beside the Jamuna River and Sahana, a homeless mother, serves there as cheap labor, caught in a modern slavery system. She fights to get back to a safe place with her two children before summer comes back again.
Funding: €25,000
DISTRIBUTION FUNDING FOR GERMAN CINEMA RELEASE:
Aisha Can’t Fly Away, dir: Morad Mostafa (Egypt)
Distribution: Rapid Eye Movies
German Cinema release: January 15, 2026
Funding: €8,000
A Useful Ghost, dir: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Thailand)
Distribution: Little Dream Pictures
German Cinema release: March 26, 2026
Funding: €10,000
DAO, dir: Alain Gomis (Senegal)
Distribution: Luftkind Filmverleih
German Cinema release: June 4, 2026
Funding: €10,000
