IDFA Bertha Fund Turns 25 With Support to Ukraine and Focus on Talent Development

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the IDFA Bertha Fund, which was originally created to support documentary filmmaking in developing countries, has seen a series of pivotal changes in both its budget and scope of financing in the last couple of years.

Speaking to Variety, Bertha Fund managing director and IDFA deputy director Isabel Arrate Fernandez commented on the fund’s recent changes: “One of the big changes this year is that we were able to raise the contributions and the number of projects we select in a year. We started the year with the aim to support 25 projects through the IBF Classic and we ended up supporting 35 because we added an entire Ukrainian leg.”

By the Ukrainian leg, Fernandez means the IDFA Bertha Fund Classic – Ukrainian Support special call, funded by the Open Society Foundation. “It came about very quickly as a hands-on reaction to what was going on. Ukraine had an active national film institute and funding body, but they closed everything down because all money had to go towards the war. So our reaction was very swift. We ended up selecting seven, which will most likely end up being nine. So that is something really new.”

This year, 11 IDFA Bertha Fund-supported films have made the IDFA’s official selection: Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes”; Anna Shishova-Bogoliubova’s “The New Greatness Case”; Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s “How to Save a Dead Friend”; Theo Montoya’s “Anhell69”; Clare Weiskopf and Nicolas van Hemelryck’s “Alis”; Manuel Abramovich’s “Pornomelancholia”; Siri Chen’s “Dear Mother, I Meant to Write About Death”; Daniela López’s “Loving Martha”; Burcu Melekoglu and Vuslat Karan’s “Blue ID”; Nishtha Jain’s “The Golden Thread”; and Angie Vinchito’s “Manifesto.”

Fernandez highlights “Manifesto” as a film she is “very much looking forward to — although ‘looking forward to’ is a little strange wording in this case.” According to the IBF managing director, Vinchito’s patchwork of often-shocking videos Russian teenagers have posted on social media is “one of those striking films that gets under your skin. It brings a perspective to a country that we now all consider as the big enemy.”

Russia was only made eligible for IBF in 2016 when the fund changed to accommodate countries from lower rankings on the World Press Freedom Index. Speaking on the change, Fernandez says: “I think it has proven to be necessary. With Russia, it has only become worse. Whoever wants to make an independent film there needs to be underground. That’s the only way if people are still there. And, countries like Iran and India, where there is much more control of media, were always on our list and they have always scored low on the World Press Index. So it hasn’t really meant a change in our selection, it’s more that we are seeing filmmakers have a tough time within their countries because their liberties are being restricted and they are being watched.”

Working with filmmakers living in strained political situations means an added emotional toll on IBF’s selection process. “There are people who you build a relationship with. So when things go wrong for them in their country, we try to help but we can’t always. Sometimes it can be tough. We had a lot of filmmakers in Kabul, so we were really invested in it and it was heartbreaking. In a way, it is maybe comparable to what film can do to you, good documentaries go beyond what you read in the news. They tell you stories and experiences from the inside out.”

At the core of how the IDFA Bertha Fund operates, Fernandez emphasizes, is a support that goes beyond the financial. “One of the things that are key to the support that we give with the IDFA Bertha Fund is that, yes, there is a very clear, concrete financial support with the grant we give filmmakers to spend on production and development, but the other part of the support we offer is having a dialogue with the filmmakers to support whatever else they may need. It is totally up to them. We talk about tailormade support because it depends on the project and the filmmaker. Some don’t need it, they work on their own, while others are much more in need of either creative consultancies or business consultancies with regards to distribution, sales and co-production.”

“Some of our first-time feature filmmakers have had quite a journey to get to this point and are now having their world premieres at IDFA,” she says, offering titles such as “Loving Martha” and “Blue ID” as examples of films that have not only received financial support through the Bertha Fund, but have also been part of one or more of the festival’s talent development programs.

Focusing on this comprehensive support is the future of the IDFA Bertha Fund, remarks its managing director. “In 2020, within IDFA, we united the IDFA Bertha Fund and the talent development activities under one umbrella and called it the Filmmaker Support Department, which I am heading. That has led to even more strengthening of collaboration and the support we can offer to filmmakers selected through the IDFA Bertha Fund. So I think what lies ahead of us is really that collaboration between the funding body and the talent development buddy to offer people new to this industry the resources to help them navigate this world and find the best route for their projects.”

How does Fernandez look back at her 20-year legacy with IBF? “I look back at it with a little bit of pride. I won’t say that so quickly [laughs]. When we look at this year, we have all these first-time filmmakers, but we also have Nishtha Jain, who we supported in four out of her five projects. So, when you talk about legacy, it is about how we were able to support filmmakers in several of their projects. That’s the kind of cycle you always see happening and probably the most rewarding aspect.”

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