BERLINALE Screen International's news round-up

Madrid-based sales agent, Kevin Williams Associates (KWA) has picked up world sales duties on Forum title One Lucky Day (Un Dia De Suerte).

The film, about an Argentinian girl who seeks her roots in Italy, is the debut feature of Argentinian director Sandra Gugliotta. It was shot in Buenos Aires, Rome and Sicily.

Gugliotta previously directed short film Noches Atticas, which won prizes from the national film institute INCAA and formed part of the nine short films compilation feature Short Stories (Historias Breves).

The film is not the only Argentinian picture being handled by KWA at Berlin's European Film Market. It is also selling Antigua: My Life (Antigua: Mia Vida) an Argentinian-Spanish co-production by Hector Olivera. KWA's slate also includes Luis Carlos Lacerda's Viva Zapato from Brazil and Spanish title No Shame (Sin Verguenza) by Joaquin Orisrell.

With branding and image an increasingly important issue for festivals the regime running now the Berlinale has commissioned a new festival trailer.

Commissioned from local Berlin film-maker Uli M Schüppel the new teaser was seen for the first time on Feb 6, ahead of the world premiere of Tom Tykwer's Heaven.

"It was a totally new experience and a real challenge for me to work only in computer animation", said Schüppel, whose previous feature Planet Alex traveled the international festival circuit last year. "What was difficult here was to capture the essence that there's someone [festival director Dieter Kosslick] approaching the Berlinale anew, who wants to give new impetus and yet carry the history with him. He wants glamour, but also underground. It was terribly difficult to bring that all together in one calling card".

The 45-second trailer was produced by Schüppel at Das Werk's digital postproduction facility. It also features a new festival signature tune composed and arranged by the young Berlin sound designers Xaver Naudascher and Johannes Koeniger.

"Actually, I made the film for Dieter because my career had suffered a lot from the Berlinale as it was before", Schüppel said. "My generation of filmmakers are setting great hope in this man. I simply wanted to show that we are starting something new and that filmmakers will be supporting him".

The Norwegian musical documentary sensation, Cool And Crazy (Heftig & Begeistret) which wrote local box-office history last year and went on to sell in 16 territories, makes a welcome return with Cool & Crazy On The Road.

The original film centered on the Berlevaag Male Choir of 30 fishermen and followed them on a tour across Russia. In the sequel, however, the choir went to the US on a tour in Oct 2001, just weeks after the terrorist attack on America. The events of Sept 11 had a major influence on the film, as the choir encountered a nation in grief. They visited "ground zero", held a concert there and met with survivors. On The Road is again directed by Knut Erik Jensen and produced by Jan Erik Gammleng for Barentsfilm. The budget was $xxm (NKR9.5m). In Berlin, sales company NonStop Sales will present a 12min showreel. But the final film will not be finished until Cannes. Cool & Crazy, which is still hoping to pick up an Oscar nomination for best documentary, was screened in Berlin last year. It also picked up a number of awards in Gothenburg, Chicago and Haugesund.

Screenwriting duo Wolfgang Becker and Bernd Lichtenberg and Thomas Wendrich will tonight (Feb 6) be awarded this year's Euros 30,000 German Script Prize. The awards will be made by Julian Nida-Rumelin, the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and Media,Wendrich will receive a prize for the rural drama Nimm Dir Dein Leben which will be produced by Cinex Film in Leipzig this summer. Sabine Michel is to direct. Becker and Lichtenberg's prize is for Good Bye, Lenin which Becker directed for X-Filme Creative Pool last year. A theatrical release for the comedy with local "shooting star" Daniel Bruehl is planned for this autumn.

Germany's Arsenal Filmverleih boss Stefan Paul is launching a new distribution label, academy.films.ludwigsburg, principally to handle student films from the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg. 'We also plan to become involved in their films at the script stage," said Paul, who is committed to providing creative input and in some cases financial support. Co-operation with Studio Babelsberg is also on the cards. The label's first title is expected to be Scardanelli, a film about the poet Hölderlin directed by Harald Bergmann.

Few German film producers are likely to meet the conditions for the new "Basel2" criteria for receiving bank credits, according to the Deutsche Bank's Irmgard M Schäuble. Speaking at the film20 conference on Wednesday (Feb 6), she said that "the banks cannot and will not compensate for the producers' marketing risks. There is an urgent need for massive structural changes in the German and European film industry".

The European Film Promotion is to expand its activities and has announced its intention to extend the Shooting Stars event to include the far North and South of Europe - from the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund to Thessaloniki in Greece.

European Film Promotion, an initiative which is financed by the EU's 19 member countries and the Media Plus programme, seeks to showcase new European talent. It was originally launched during the Berlin Film festival in 1997.

This year it presents 17 young actors in the Shooting Star programme, which kicks off on Sunday (Feb 10). Among these are Norway's Maria Bonnevie (Dragonflies), Denmark's Maria Würgler Rich (Minor Mishaps), Germany's Antonio Wannek (Der Felsen) and Iceland's Margret Vilhjálmsdottir (The Seagull's Laughter).

Haugesund (Aug 26-Sep 1) will be the first event outside Berlin to copy the idea. "It is a step up in the world of festivals," said Gunnar Johan Lovvik, Haugesund managing director. "It gives us the opportunity to attract a number of coming stars as well as films that we otherwise might have a hard time getting." Through the link with Shooting Stars the festival expects to attract some five to ten films and hopes that the programme mentor Istvan Szabo might attend too. The Thessaloniki Film Festival takes place from Nov 15-24.

Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder promised a "substantial increase" in funds to the German film industry at the opening ceremony of the Berlinale on Wednesday evening (Feb 6).

He pointed out that, at federal level, film funding had increased by 30% from 1998 to now more than Eu