14/05/2005

Today, in Cannes, German Films, the promotion body for the German film industry, has officially launched its new support scheme for the theatrical release of German feature films and documentaries in foreign countries. This support, which has been inspired by what Eurimages and Media+ do for all European films, will allow a Hungarian or Portuguese distributor for instance to apply for up to €50,000 as a conditionally repayable loan, up to €10,000 of which can be given as a grant. This financial contribution should be used for the financing of additional measures on top of the release campaign which had already been planned. The selection committee will be headed by Christian Dorsch, German Films' director, assisted by Antonio Exacoustos, ARRI Media Worldsales's CEO and Harald Kügler, producer at Olga Film (Munich).

Through this support German Films wants to foster cinematography exportation that has been quite successful abroad in the previous years with titles like Good Bye, Lenin!, Head-On or Downfall (one of Cineuropa's recent Focus). According to Christian Dorsch, "this is the right time to support this trend thanks to a funding programme which will enable to focus the public’s attention on German films abroad via the specific support of release campaigns."

All the details are now available on German Films

(Translated from French)