Four film projects from Armenia, Indonesia, Iran and Israel have been backed by the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund (WCF) with a total of $325,680 (Euros 220,000) at its latest funding session chaired by festival director Dieter Kosslick. The four were selected from 108 submissions from 40 countries.

The selected projects include the first filmmakers from the Caucasus region and South East Asia which were allowed to apply for funding since August of this year.

The fund gave $74,020 (Euros 50,000) to Yerevan-based ARMNA's production of Armenian director Aram Shabazyan's Chnchik. Germany's Martin Hagemann (zero fiction), Switzerland's Andres Pfaeffli (Ventura Film) and Eld Vandervoorst (Isabella Films) are co-producers.

Meanwhile, $81,414 (Euros 55,000) was allocated to Indonesian Ravi Bharwani's second feature Jermal, about a boy sent to his father on a jermal (a fishing platform in the middle of the sea) after his mother's death. The international co-production between Orlow Selunke's Jakarta-based Salto Films and Amsterdam-based Motel Films recently received support from the Hubert Bals Fund.

The largest amount of this funding round - $96,216 (Euros 65,000) -was given to Palestinian director Tawfik Abu-Wael's second feature Tumbling (Tanathor) about a husband and wife in Ramallah in the 1960s having to confront the demons of their past. The production by Israeli Amir Harel's Lama Films was presented at Locarno's Open Doors platform in August where it won a development and production grant from the SDC.

In addition, $74,010 (Euros 50,000) was allocated to Iranian fimmaker Rafi Pitts for his new project The Hunter which is to be produced Tehran-based AMA Media Productions.

Since the WCF's founding in October 2004, 43 projects received either production or distribution support.

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