As the film industry has changed over the years, the Fund has continually adapted to the times, while the support of independent creative visions has unequivocally remained at the core of the Fund’s policy. The support provided by the Fund is not limited to a financial grant alone—it comes hand-in-hand with tailor-made consultancies for the project teams, aimed at providing guidance to their wide-ranging needs and helping them navigate the changing film industry. Establishing the Filmmaker Support Department, which brings IDFA’s talent development activities and the IDFA Bertha Fund together under one umbrella, has enhanced the range of support and guidance that the Fund can provide.

The Fund has collaborated with a wide range of creators from 118 different countries in the past 25 years, working under many different circumstances. At the best of times, their work is about the creative process, making space for searching and reflection, and about the creation of a visual language. In the most difficult times, their work is about survival, resilience, and continuing to make film despite everything.

In recent years, increasing numbers of filmmakers that the Fund collaborates with have been forced to be careful about the information that they share about their projects and their identities—due to threats to their freedom of expression. In a new In focus section the Activity Report 2022 presents The paradox of anonymous filmmaking, which reflects on what it means to be required to remain anonymous in an industry where communication and promotion are critical in ensuring a film project's progress. The report also presents a series of In the spotlight articles, where IBF-supported filmmakers take us behind the scenes in the filmmaking process and dive into the context in which their film was made.

Filmmaker Shaunak Sen dives into the making of his Academy Award-nominated film All That Breathes, the second documentary from India to receive this nomination. Journalists-turned-filmmakers Hamdan Balal and Basel El-Adara talk about their commitment to document the violence against their community and the urgency to finish their film No Other Land. Simón Hernández Estrada and Liliana Andrade elaborate on finding the right balance between news, personal documentation, and the poetic imagination for their film Under Her Skin. Yuliia Hontaruk and Ivanna Khitsinska, director and producer of Company of Steel, represent a generation who has no choice but to make films amid a war that seems to have no end. Finally, Aicha Macky talks about her commitment to make Zinder, a film about gangs in Niger and the process of traveling through Niger with a mobile cinema to show the film across the country.

In 2022, the Fund was able to offer its support and host activities without obstacles. The year did see major changes occurring within the Fund’s two support categories. For the first time since 2009, the Fund was able to increase the financial contribution given to projects selected for IBF Classic. The goal of this extended support being to strengthen the position and international visibility of directors and producers from IBF regions, and to help empower their creative freedom and foster a more balanced co-production environment.