FFA allocates over €1.1m to distributors

by Bénédicte Prot

26/04/2011 - The distribution and marketing funding allocation committee of the German Federal Film Board (FFA) has awarded €515,000 in grants for distribution (domestic and international) and €600,000 in marketing funding to a total of ten local productions.

First up is this year’s winner of the Silver Lola for Best Film: Almanya – Welcome to Germany [trailer] by Yasemin Samdereli. Its distributor Concorde Filmverleih, received €100,000 for the film’s release on German screens and €300,000 for an effective advertising campaign.

The other title to have received €300,000 in marketing funding is Sebastian Dehnhardt’s Klitschko – Inside the Ropes, about boxing’s Klitschko brothers. This support for the film’s distributor, Majestic, is topped up with €80,000 to cover other expenses.

The other films to get distribution funding are: X Verleih titles Eine Insel Namens Udo (€80,000) by Markus Sehr and Joshka und Herr Fischer (€70,000) by documentary filmmaker Pepe Danquart; Hans Steinbichler’s Das Blaue vom Himmel (€40,000, NFP Marketing & Distribution), starring Hannelore Elsner, Karoline Herfurth and David Kross; Westwind (€35,000) by Robert Thalheim (And Along Come Tourists [trailer]) and Jakob Ziemnicki’s Polnische Ostern (€25,000), both distributed by Zorro Film; and Sleeping Sickness [trailer, film focus] (€35,000, Farbfilm), which earned Ulrich Köhler the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.

The latter feature also received €10,000 in funding for international distribution. Two other titles shown in competition at Berlin, Andres Veiel’s If Not Us, Who [trailer] (Bronze Lola for Best Film of the Year) and Miranda July’s The Future [trailer], obtained €20,000 each. All three titles are all sold internationally by Cologne-based The Match Factory.

(Translated from French)