02/04/2007

At the meeting of its Reference Support Funds (automatic funding for producers and distributors, whose performance is measured by a points system) held at the Berlin Academy of Arts on March 29, the German Federal Film Board (FFA) assigned €18.5m to the best performing companies of 2006.

Topping the league in both categories for the third consecutive year was Munich-based Constantin. The outfit was assigned a total €3.4m, a sum that it will use to finance new projects.

The two producers with the highest number of winning titles in 2006 on a national and international level were Razor Film Produktion, with Paradise Now, and Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion, with the Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile] (see Focus).

The best producers of the year will share €15.5m for the success of 88 films. After Constantin, which received €2.7m for the production of nine titles (including Atomised [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franka Potente & Moritz Ble…
interview: Oskar Roehler
film profile] (see Focus), Hui Buh [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a co-production that garnered over 5m admissions and received the highest sum, €2m), runners-up in this category were SamFilm (€1.3m, in particular for The Wild Soccer Bunch 3) and Zipfelmützen Film (€850,579).

Of the €15.5m in Reference Support Funds, 60.2% went to features, 27.3% to children's films and 12.5% to documentaries.

In distribution, just under €3m was assigned to 30 companies. Constantin received €678,302, followed by X Verleih AG (€424,594) and Buena Vista International Germany (€284,147).

A sum of €631,000 was distributed to 99 shorts.

(Translated from French)