http://www.screendaily.com/news/finance/europe/german-funds-support-international-co-productions-with-20m/5010479.article

5 February, 2010 | By Martin Blaney

German funds pay out more than $20m in support fpr international co-productions, including David Cronenberg’s The Talking Cure.

David Cronenberg’s (pictured) The Talking Cure, starring Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbender, is among the international co-productions to receive more than $20.4m (€15m) in backing from German Federal Film Board (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and Filmstiftung NRW- at their latest funding sessions.

Istvan Szabo’s The Door, Antti Jokinen’s Nicholas North and Rodrigo Moreno’s A Mysterious World have also received funding.

Berlin-based production house Lago Film has received a total of $1.6m (€1.2m) from the FFA and Filmstiftung NRW for Cronenberg’s adaptation of the Christopher Hampton play of the same name. Waltz and Fassbender will star s Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung alongside Keira Knightley as an enigmatic Russian woman Sabina Spielrein.

Meanwhile, MMC Independent has accessed $2m (€ 1.5m) from Filmstiftung NRW for Finnish director Jokinen’s fantasy adventure Nicholas North, which is set to star Hilary Swank, Juliane Moore and Stellan Skarsgard and will shoot in North Rhine-Westphalia for 19 days.

Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare drama Anonymous has received $1.2m (€900,000) – the largest sum allocated by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at this first sitting of 2010.

Other international projects backed by the Berlin fund included for veteran Hungarian film-maker Istvan Szabo’s adaptation of Magda Szabo’s (no relation to the director) international bestseller The Door, which has Helen Mirren is attached, and Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno’s black comedy A Mysterious World, co-produced with Rohfilm.

Filmstiftung NRW has allocated $681,324 (€500,000) to the German-Polish-French co-production of Malgoska Szumowska’s new feature film Sponsoring, with Juliette Binoche and Anais Demoustier, and it has also given $476,878 (€350,000) to French director Sylvian Estibal’s feature debut, the comedy Das Schwein Von Gaza, which is being structured as a German-French-Belgian co-production by Berlin’s Barry Films.

Several local German productions were also given project support by the three funds. These include Helmut Dietl’s satire on the high life in Berlin, Berlin Mitte, with Michael “Bully” Herbig in the lead; Kai Wessel’s family film Tom Sawyer; and documentary film-maker Andres Veiel’s first foray into fiction film with Wer Wenn Nicht Wir, with August Diehl, Lena Lauzemis and Alexander Fehling playing the young Bernward Vesper, Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader.

Support was also given to award-winning filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi’s documentary The Green Wave about last year’s elections in Iran and UFA Cinema’s political thriller Im Jahr Des Hundes by Dennis Gansel.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023919.html?categoryId=19&cs=1

Posted: Thurs., Sep. 9, 2010, 5:10am PT

RTL backs Berlin-Brandenburg fund
Broadcaster to contribute $636,000 a year
By ED MEZA

BERLIN -- Germany's deep-pocketed film funders keep getting richer.

Just days after Bavarian subsidy org FFF Bayern upped its annual budget by E350,000 ($450,967), thanks to a boost by pubcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, commercial rival RTL Television has agreed to back the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg to the tune of some $636,000 a year.

Already a shareholding partner in fellow regional funders FFF Bayern and the Filmstiftung NRW, as well as the German Federal Film Board (FFA), RTL now joins existing Medienboard backers ProSiebenSat.1 and pubcasters ZDF, RBB and ARD Degeto. RTL's overall contributions to the country's film subsidies now exceed $9 million.

Germany's leading commercial broadcaster, RTL is not exactly known for producing theatrical German films and the broadcaster made clear that the new funding was aimed at mainstream, audience-friendly features and TV event movies.

RTL topper Anke Schaeferkordt said, "Successful fictional in-house productions make a channel distinctive -- at RTL they are among the most popular genres. That's why we want to actively participate in their support."

Added Medienboard managing director Kirsten Niehuus: "I believe there are many films here that can benefit from this partnership."

Recent productions financed by the Medienboard include David Cronenberg's shrink drama "A Dangerous Method," starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley -- about Sigmund Freud and Gustav Jung and the woman that came between them; Farhan Akhtar's Bollywood actioner "Don II," with Shah Rukh Khan; and Paramount Germany and ProSieben's apocalyptic thriller "2016 -- Das Ende der Nacht," from Tim Fehlbaum and exec produced by Roland Emmerich.