Prada Foundation selects feature films for funding from submissions
New films by renowned filmmakers, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, director of the film Tropical Malady, Corneliu Porumboiu from Romania, and Tatiana Huezo from Mexico, are among the first 14 feature films selected to receive funding from the Prada Foundation Film Fund, Variety magazine reported.
The Prada Foundation Film Fund, whose main directors are currently attending the Berlin International Film Festival, was officially launched last year in Venice with a total budget of €1.5 million to support independent cinema worldwide, without restrictions regarding theme, genre, language, or other conditions, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.
The projects selected by the Prada Foundation — from an impressive total of more than 1,200 submissions — come from 26 countries across five continents. Of the 14 selected feature films, four are in development, nine are in production, and one is in post-production. They are directed by six women and eight men and include two debut feature films.
“The quality and experimentation of the selected projects demonstrate the dynamic nature and diversity that characterize contemporary independent cinema,” said Miuccia Prada, owner of the Italian luxury group Prada and director of the Prada Foundation, the cultural institution she founded with her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, in 1993.
“Through the Film Fund, we aim to promote the work of authors, especially those who most need concrete support to bring their vision to life. Moving forward, the Prada Foundation intends to continue promoting the idea of a free, demanding and visionary cinema by building a stronger dialogue with those who conceive, develop and produce films,” she added.
The Prada Foundation Film Fund offers three types of support: development, production and post-production. The maximum funding a project can receive is €250,000 for production.
The fund is managed by Paolo Moretti, former director of the Quinzaine des Cinéastes section at Cannes, in collaboration with film programmer Rebecca De Pas.
The film to be directed by Corneliu Porumboiu is titled The Costume, a France–Germany–Romania co-production currently in the production phase.
