The IDFA Bertha Fund supports documentary filmmakers in and from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe by offering them financial contributions to develop and realize their projects. The fund is looking for new creative documentary projects from these countries, that use strong visual approaches to tell compelling stories and have the potential to reach a global audience.

NEW: Starting in 2017, the IBF Country List is replacing the DAC-list as the reference for eligible countries. The IBF Country List is based on the DAC-list, but excludes those Eastern European countries that have access to funding from the MEDIA programme, and includes those countries listed on the 2016 World Press Freedom Index ranking from 114 to 180 that are not included in the DAC-list, where the situation concerning freedom of the press is difficult or very difficult. Only projects about human rights or social issues will be accepted from these countries. You can find them marked with a * on the new list with IBF Countries. (NOTE: for the ASEM member countries, this is Singapore, Russia, Brunei).

NEW: Only in 2017, an exception will be made for projects from Syrian directors living in Europe. Applications will be accepted under the following conditions:
• the director has a recent refugee status or is in the process of acquiring one;
• the project is developed and mainly produced and filmed in Syria or neighbouring countries;
• filming of the project is almost completed and funding is mainly required for post-production; and
• the project cannot be funded through other European funding sources.

Projects can be submitted within the following funding schemes:

IBF Classic
Directors or producers from a country on the IBF Country List can apply with a documentary project for the following categories:
(1) Project Development (max. contribution € 5.000)
(2) Production and post-production (max. contribution € 17.500)

Regulations
The deadline to submit a project for the first selection round of 2017 is February 1.

For the regulations, the online entry form and submission FAQ please click here.

IBF Europe: Distribution for International Co-Production
This category is designed to support innovative distribution plans for documentaries realized through international co-productions in which at least one European and one non-European producer (from the IBF Country List) is involved. Distribution plans should seek to reach a broad global audience. Applicant should be based in a MEDIA sub-program country and be a rights holder (producer, sales agent, distributor, etc.) of the film (contribution € 30.000).

Regulations
The most important regulation is that the director of the documentary should be a citizen of a country from the IBF Country List and primarily live and work in that country. The IBF will accept and grant to distribution proposals continuously from December 2016 until October 1, 2017. For further regulations, the online entry form and submission FAQ please click here.

Submit through MyIDFA
In order to submit a project to the IDFA Bertha Fund, you need a MyIDFA user account. You can register for a MyIDFA account on our website. With this account you can then submit entry forms to the IDFA Bertha Fund, as well as to IDFA, Docs for Sale and IDFA Forum.

For more information feel free to contact us at idfaberthafund@idfa.nl.

Further deadlines
IDFA Bertha Fund Classic: May 15, 2017
IDFA Bertha Fund Europe: Co-production: May 1, 2017