Constantin Film named Germany's most successful producer and distributor of 2011

The Munich-based producer-distributor was allocated a total of around € 2.3m “reference” funding for the company to invest in future film projects and theatrical campaigns.

Constantin attracted € 1.35m in production “reference” funding from the release of six films during 2011, including The Three Musketeers 3D and Carnage, and distribution “reference” support of €940,000, based on the performance of 15 releases.

Actor Til Schweiger’s production company Barefoot Films received the second highest amount of production “reference” funding - € 1.25m – for just one production, Kokowääh, which was the most successful local film at the German box-office in 2011, while the Constantin Film subsidiary Rat Pack Filmproduktion followed with €976,000 based on the performance of such films as Vicky and the Treasure of the Gods 3D and The Crocodiles 3: All For One.

In the distribution category, Constantin was followed by Sony Pictures Releasing (€347,000 for four successful releases) and Warner Bros. Entertainment (€344,000 for six films).

The automatic “reference” funding is paid out by the FFA to a producer if their German film (or a German co-production with another country) has reached at least 150,000 “reference points” in Germany within one year of the theatrical release.

These “points” are calculated according to commercial success and invitations to and awards at certain film festivals.

Thus, for example, 50,000 points are awarded for an invitation to screen in competition at Locarno, Rotterdam or San Sebastian, but 150,000 points could be earned if the film subsequently wins the Golden Leopard, Tiger Award or the Golden Shell.

Moreover, 150,000 points are allocated for a nomination to the Golden Globes or Oscars, and winning one of these trophies – or a Golden Palm, Golden Bear or Golden Lion – would bring 300,000 points for a film’s “reference” funding account.

However, a film must reach at least 50,000 admissions in German cinemas for any of these additional points to be considered.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the FFA announced that the German-French Funding Committee decided at its latest session to distribute a total of €760,000 production support to three German-French co-productions, including the next feature project by Oscar-winning director Pepe Danquart, Run Boy Run.

€ 270,000 was allocated to Danquart’s adaptation of Yuri Orlev’s autobiography about a young Jewish boy escaping from the Warsaw Ghetto, which is being produced by bittersuess pictures with A Company and France’s Cine Sud Promotion, while € 220,000 is going to the psychological drama Zum Geburtstag by French director Denis Dercourt who has been based in Germany since 2010, to be produced by Düsseldorf-based Busse & Halberschmidt Filmproduktion with Cité Films in Paris.

The third funded project with € 270,000 is Pierre Henry Salfati’s Der letzte Mensch, to be produced by Cologne-based Elsani Film with Paris outfit Sequoia Films, which will star veteran German actor Götz George as a survivor of the horrors of Theresienstadt.