Hubert Bals Fund

Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche 🔥

Congratulations to Costa Rican filmmaker Kim Torres whose HBF+Europe-supported debut feature Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche is set to premiere in the New Directors competition at the Donostia Zinemaldia - Festival de San Sebastián!

In the film, the thirteen-year-old Laura must navigate a new rural home amid forests and endless palm plantations, where violence lingers like a shadow. The project was backed by the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme in 2023.

In the Horizontes Latinos section, two more HBF-supported projects screen: Hiedra by Ana Cristina Barragán and Nuestra tierra by Lucrecia Martel.

Read more about them all: https://iffr.com/en/blog-autumn-festivals-2025

Spying Stars by Vimukthi Jayasundara to premiere in Busan 🇱🇰

A sci-fi mediation on loss, mourning and technology, the film follows bioengineer Anandi, who returns from space only to be quarantined at a remote resort during a mysterious pandemic. Jayasundara’s debut The Forsaken Land (2005) won the Camera d’Or at Cannes.

The project was funded in 2022 through the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support scheme, supported by Creative Europe MEDIA.

It's one of several supported films screening at the 부산국제영화제 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) from 17–26 September 2025.

Competition:
🇱🇰 Spying Stars by Vimukthi Jayasundara (HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support 2022)

A Window on Asian Cinema:
🇸🇬 Amoeba by Siyou Tan (HBF Development 2022, NFF+HBF Co-production Support 2023, HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support, Dutch co-producer Volya Films)
🇮🇳 Bayaan by Bikas Ranjan Mishra (HBF Development 2013, CineMart 2013, Darkroom 2025)
🇰🇿 Becoming by Zhannat Alshanova (HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production Support, Dutch co-producer Volya Films)
🇹🇭 A Useful Ghost by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (HBF+Europe 2023)

World Cinema:
🇧🇷 The Blue Trail by Gabriel Mascaro (HBF Development 2014, CineMart 2017, NFF+HBF 2020)

Read more: https://iffr.com/en/blog-autumn-festivals-2025