New Germany and France film fund of $376,000 from 2009

Germany and France are considered to be the best friends in the EU community. Now they are going to launch a $376,000 (Euros 300,000) co-development fund from 2009. The news was announced at this year's Franco-German Film Rendez-Vous in Hamburg. 300 German and French producers, distributors and film funders attended the three-day annual event which alternates between France and Germany, reported Screen Daily.

Christine Berg of the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) explained that the fund should promote the "cultural and economical potential for the German and French market."

Individual funding will be awarded up to $63,000 (Euros 50,000) and the fund would be open to a producer's first or second feature film.

French Cinema

In France, 2008 has been a landmark year. Not only did The Class win the Palme d'Or but Marion Cotillard won a Best Actress Oscar - the first French language performance ever to do so, propelling her film, La Vie en Rose, to impressive international box-office figures (£1m in the UK). France also produced its most successful film ever in Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks), a culture-clash comedy based in small-town northern France, which brought 20 million French people into cinemas, grossing more than $200m and, so far, racking up more than two million DVD sales.

German Cinema

'The Lives of Others' 2006 won an Oscar and established German cinema German cinema has done remarkably well during the last ten years. 'Run Lola Run' 1998 created a sensation the world over. In 2002, Caroline Link won an Oscar for “Nowhere in Africa” and in 2007 Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck won the cherished trophy for his film “The Lives of Others”, and the same year the Cannes International Film Festival awarded its prize for best script and its special prize to Fatih Akin for his film “The Edge of Heaven”. In 2007, Tom Tykwer’s film of Patrick Süskind’s best-selling novel “Perfume” won the German Film Prize in six different categories.

EURIMAGES- AN EU Initiative

The European Union launched a series of initiatives. One, Eurimages, offers interest-free, conditionally repayable loans for co-produced feature films and creative documentaries.The European Co-Production Fund (ECF) offers commercial loans - up to 30% of the total budget and rarely more than £500,000 - for feature length films produced by at least two production companies in two separate EU states. Producers in France and Germany make the best of this fund.