The yearly WCF Day at the Berlinale is the World Cinema Fund’s (WCF) public think-tank. The 2025 WCF Day programme offers the opportunity to address key artistic and cultural policy issues in the WCF’s work. These include the need to further develop structural measures in the WCF regions, which is connected to the visibility of WCF as well as other films. It is about a further professionalisation of the industry, which can lead to more autonomy and decolonisation.
Photo: WCF-Film Khartoum by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox © Native Voice Films
The presence of five WCF-supported films in the Berlinale 2025 programme conveys very well what the WCF is, does and means today. The WCF was founded more than 20 years ago with the aim of playing a role in the democratisation of the international film industry. Director’s Talks are an integral part of WCF Day every year. In further panels, the production conditions in specific WCF funding regions and new focal points of the WCF funding strategy are presented.
The WCF Day is organised in cooperation with Berlinale Talents.
WCF Day on February 19, 2025 from 2.30 pm (in English)
HAU2, Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 Berlin
Poetry and Politics, Production and Visibility
Concrete Resilience Strategies in Challenging Times
Keynote
What about international film funding?
Bridges building to missing links and other dream destinations
Keynote Speaker: Dorothee Wenner (curator, filmmaker)
Director’s Talk
Chronicle of a Humanist and Transcendental Road Movie
About El mensaje (Competition) by Iván Fund
Argentina / Spain / Uruguay 2025
Life as poetic resistance. The magic of looks and gestures.
Iván Fund in conversation with Vincenzo Bugno (Head of WCF)
Talk 1
Region(s) in Focus: The Arab World
Despite tragedies, wars, contradictions and discrepancies, is this a profoundly interesting time for Arab cinema? Production, identities and artistic profiles
With Rabih El-Khoury (programmer, Lebanon / Germany), Alaa Karkouti (CEO MAD Solutions and Co-founder of the Arab Cinema Center, Egypt), Rana Eid (Sound Designer / Director, Lebanon), Talal Afifi (Producer, Sudan), Kesmat El Sayed (Producer, Egypt / Germany)
Host: Vincenzo Bugno, Head of WCF
Talk 2
Distribution: Not Only a Priority, But a Profession
The charm of pragmatism: concrete visibility, distribution and audience strategies for WCF regions and countries
With Torsten Frehse (Distributor, Germany), Semagngeta Aychiluhem (Distributor, Ethiopia), Priscilla Miranda do Rosario (Distributor, Brasil), other guests tbc
Host: Isona Admetlla, WCF Coordinator
The event is held in English.
Free entrance. To request an invitation please contact: worldcinemafund@berlinale.de
WCF-Funded Films at Berlinale 2025
The WCF has increasingly campaigned for the democratisation and decolonisation of the film landscape and for cooperation between Germany, Europe and the so-called “WCF countries and regions“. There is a direct link between the political situation in these countries and film production. This is also about resistance and resilience. One example: During the Bolsonaro era, it was an act of resistance and resilience in Brazil to produce committed films with a strong artistic profile. Today, the Argentinian film industry is in a worrying situation, as the current government has drastically cut or cancelled funding for culture in general and film production in particular. A WCF-funded film from Argentina is screening in Competition at the Berlinale.
Four other WCF films in the programme come from the African continent. These films were also able to be made because the WCF has been able to obtain special funding for African films over the years. The WCF owes its existence above all to the support of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, which has accompanied the WCF since its foundation. The German Federal Cultural Foundation has confirmed its support for the WCF until 2028.
Competition
El mensaje (The Message)
by Iván Fund
Argentina / Spain / Uruguay 2025
World premiere
Berlinale Special
Ancestral Visions of the Future
by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
France / Lesotho / Germany / Katar / Saudi Arabia 2025
World premiere | Documentary form
Perspectives
Al mosta'mera (The Settlement)
by Mohamed Rashad
Egypt / France / Germany / Qatar / Saudi Araba 2025
World premiere
Panorama
Khartoum
by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox
Sudan / United Kingdom / Germany / Qatar 2025
European premiere | Documentary form
Forum
Minimals in a Titanic World
by Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo
Rwanda / Germany / Cameroon 2025
World premiere
The World Cinema Fund is part of Berlinale Pro*, which unites the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and the World Cinema Fund. Berlinale Pro* is the festival’s full-circle industry infrastructure that serves the global film industry as incubator, enhancer and supporter in all stages of film development, production, and distribution.
The World Cinema Fund is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office and with further support by the Goethe-Institut.
The special WCF Europe programme was launched with the support of the European Union's Creative Europe MEDIA programme. Thanks to additional funding from the German Federal Foreign Office, the special programme WCF Africa was started in 2016.