EXCLUSIVE: The Palestine Movie Institute (PFI) has launched the Palestine Movie Fund (PFF) to help Palestinian filmmakers worldwide in creating genuine narratives and taking management of their very own photos and tales.
The physique will current the fund on the Cannes Movie Competition on Monday, in an occasion at its pavilion within the Marché du Movie’s Worldwide Village. Palestine is represented in Cannes Official Choice this yr by Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser’s As soon as Upon A Time In Gaza, which premieres in Un Sure Regard.
The fund will supply grants value between €5,000 ($5.5k) to €15,000 ($16.7k) to brief and have movie initiatives at numerous phases of growth and manufacturing.
All Palestinian filmmakers working in difficult circumstances can be eligible for the fund, no matter their place of residence or nationality. Precedence can be given to administrators primarily based in Palestine, in decrease earnings international locations, or in areas the place discrimination towards Palestinian voices restricts entry to funding alternatives.
The PFI states the fund’s key aims as giving Palestinian filmmakers autonomy over their very own tales and pictures; supporting documentary and different cinema instructed by means of a Palestinian perspective; creating affect by increasing the attain of Palestinian movies to world audiences; advocating for sustainable movie manufacturing modes and rising availability of sectoral help to Palestinian filmmakers.
“For greater than a century, Palestinians have created highly effective photos, movies, sounds, and narratives documenting our individuals’s experiences, but these photos have typically been silenced, erased, or used towards us,” stated PFI Govt Board Member Reem Shadid.
The fund’s founding companions are the Amsterdam-based IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF), the Copenhagen-based Worldwide Media Help (IMS) and the Beirut-based Arab Fund for Arts and Tradition (AFAC), with further help from the Worldwide Useful resource for Influence and Storytelling (IRIS).
“On this most crucial time for Palestinian cinema, we’re extraordinarily grateful for the unimaginable collaboration and help of the Fund’s founding companions, stated Shadid.
“The Palestine Movie Fund represents a important step towards making certain Palestinian filmmakers have the assets and help to inform our personal tales, form up to date narratives, and construct an enduring audiovisual archive that displays our experiences from inside.”
Based in 2001, within the wake of the Rwanda and the Balkans conflicts, IMS works to help native media in locations affected by battle and political transition and has been supporting journalists in Gaza.
“It’s extra vital than ever to help documentaries from Palestine and ensure Palestinian filmmakers have an opportunity to inform their very own tales in a state of affairs that appears to be described by everybody however Palestinians,” stated IMS Head of Documentary Rasmus Steen.
“By documenting the present state of affairs, at the least we be sure that future generations have entry to genuine narratives. Making documentary movies can be contributing to the historical past books. Who is aware of, at some point, we could possibly study from this historical past and hopefully do higher.”
Centered on supporting inventive documentary in Africa, Asia, Japanese Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania, the IDFA Bertha Fund has supported a lot of Palestinian documentaries since its creation in 1998, together with 2025 Oscar-winner No Different Land, Ambulance and 5 Damaged Cameras.
“The launch of this fund comes at a important second the place it’s pressing to help the autonomous, important, and creative voices of Palestinian filmmakers worldwide,” stated IDFA Bertha Fund Govt Director Selin Murat.
“We strongly imagine on this mandate and our companions’ shared imaginative and prescient of a vibrant Palestinian filmmaking group firmly related to the worldwide movie panorama, by means of direct funding and tailor-made help.”
Beirut-based AFAC is likely one of the greatest pan-Arab movie funds on the earth and has backed greater than 2,000 initiatives since its creation in 2007. Latest Palestinian grantees embody Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias and Annemarie Jacir’s upcoming drama 36.
“We’re honored to associate with PFI in launching their fund. Because the inception of AFAC, we now have anticipated the emergence of extra movie funds within the area to reinforce help for native filmmakers,” stated AFAC Govt Director Rima Mismar.
“After two years of genocide in Gaza and the silencing of Palestinian voices and their supporters worldwide, a fund particularly devoted to Palestinian filmmakers and targeted on nurturing Palestinian tales represents a big step ahead. It’s a method to make sure that Palestinian tales are instructed by means of cinema. Our ongoing help for the Palestine Movie Institute displays our dedication, and we view this milestone as one in all many developments to return.”
The fund builds on PFI’s work since its founding in 2019, which incorporates organising mentorship packages in addition to supporting the exhibition and promotion of Palestinian movies to worldwide audiences at movie festivals and thru its established Palestine Movie Platform (PFP). T
The fund continues to actively search for further companions to affix its community of people and organisations dedicated to empowering Palestinian filmmakers.
In a bid to make the fund accessible to a a various vary of Palestinian voices and views, the fund could have a easy two-stage utility course of, which submissions accepted in each English and Arabic.
The primary name for purposes will open in September 2025, with picks to be introduced in November 2025. Full utility tips and standards can be accessible on the PFI web site.
