The IDFA Bertha Fund is the only fund in the world dedicated solely to stimulating and empowering the creative documentary sector in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe.
The Fund supports relevant films with a clear sense of artistic ambition. Not limiting the filmmakers’ scope of topics, the overall body of films supported by the IBF over the past years presents an outstanding contribution to the global view of the South.
Documentaries supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund express the artistic vision of filmmakers and vary greatly in theme, narrative and visual style. Supported films range from philosophical filmic essays to documentaries dealing with pressing social issues.
The Fund takes risks on unknown and seasoned filmmakers alike through a rigorous selection process. The selection process of the IBF has proven successful time and again, with films and filmmakers breaking through from marginalized positions to taking over the most respected platforms, and winning awards in both cinema and television.
In addition, the Fund offers a range of activities aimed at empowering filmmakers from the IBF regions throughout the creative process (particularly in story development and in editing) and the production process (financing and distribution) with tailor-made consultancies, as well as access to training programs and IDFA’s markets.
The Fund also actively promotes the harvest of IBF-supported documentaries each year at IDFA, the world's largest and most influential documentary film festival, and helps filmmakers and organizations expand their networks. The IBF puts IDFA's power and reach at the service of its filmmakers.
All these endeavors work towards an inclusive documentary production system where filmmakers and documentaries from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe can reach a worldwide audience, and are presented as prominently at international festivals, markets and television channels as Western documentaries.
