Short Film News (SFN)- International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) announced that the future of the Jan Vrijman Fund is uncertain, because the main financier of the Fund, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has withdrawn on the basis of a formal change in the application procedure.

IDFA founded the Jan Vrijman Fund in 1998 to support the documentary film makers and their projects in developing countries and over the past years, hundreds of projects and films were supported that could not have been realized without the Fund.

After Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs' decision to discontinue its subsidy of the Jan Vrijman Fund, the Fund received some declarations of support from documentary filmmakers and professionals from different countries, such as Chile, Iran, South Africa, Kosovo, Germany, Indonesia and etc.

Many expressions of sympathy come from documentary film professionals who are not eligible for support from the Fund, but who do recognize the need for the Jan Vrijman Fund to continue as a booster of mature documentary film cultures in developing countries.

IDFA has published a selection of declarations of support here.