06/12/2005

The collaboration envisaged last Summer by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) which led to a contract signed at the beginning of November by Dagmar Reim (RBB accountant) and Kirsten Niehuus (director of the Medienboard) has just started operating. With institutions keen to develop features and TV projects, RBB agreed to give the Medienboard 1 million euros per year, and last Friday, a first set of seven projects received 1,086,000 euros.

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Two of the supported projects are documentaries: An der Spree, in which Gerd Conradt follows the river from its source to its end (€150,000 for ma.ja.de Filmproduktions), and Ostpunk! by the East-German director Carsten Fiebeler (€36,000 for Egoli Tossell Film). The Medienboard also selected two 'new generation' projects: Nicht als Gespenter, film adapted by Martin Gypkens from Judith Hermann's novel (€100,000 for box! Film), and Plan B, a comedy by Franziska Meletzky starring Corinna Harfouch, Dagmar Manzel, Kirsten Block, and Jörg Schüttauf. This film about three sisters who meet for their mother's birthday and start questioning their whole lives got Credo Film 250,000 euros. The other supported projects are the TV fiction Nicht alle waren Mörder (€400,000 for TeamWorx), the episode comedy-drama Old Love by the German prize-winning director Jan Schütte (€100,000 for Zero Films), and the 3D series Die Moffels (€50,000 for Digitrick).

As Kirsten Niehuus declared, 'this cooperation with the RBB is a step forward for the Medienboard. (...) This synergy is important for film production in and around the capital'. The director of the Medienboard also insisted on the fact that 'the selected projects cover a whole range of different genres: big features, TV films, documentaries, new generation works, and animation films'. Gabriel Heim, director of the RBB, adds that this is only the beginning.

(Translated from French)