Record number of films supported in DFFF incentive’s fourth year

The number of beneficiaries was 10% up on 2009’s 104 when the incentive programme had paid out $ 75m (€ 57.6m) in grants.

Last year saw $37.8m (€ 29m) going to 71 German productions including such projects as Leander Haussmann’s tragicomedy Hotel Lux, the revamped Deutsche Columbia Pictures’ second local project Resturlaub, and Oliver Schmitz’s adaptation of Wladimir Kaminer’s cult novel Russendisko which will be Paramount Pictures Germany’s third local pickup for distribution.

Meanwhile, 43 international co-productions qualified for DFFF support totalling $37.6m (€28.8m), compared to $28.9m (€22.2m) for 38 co-productions in 2009. They included Paul W. Anderson’s 3D costume drama The Three Musketeers – which received the largest amount ($ 9.77m/€ 7.5m) for a single project, the Bollywood action film Don 2 ($ 1.98m/€ 1.52m), Joe Wright’s espionage thriller Hanna ($4.8m/€ 3.7m) [pictured] and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method ($2.3m/€ 1.77m).

The DFFF was launched in 2007, initially for a three-year period, with an annual budget of $78.1m (€60m) and was subsequently extended for another three years to 2012.

Up to the end of December 2010, the fund had supported 416 projects with a total of $307.3m (€236m), with a “German spend” generated of more than $ 1.82bn (€ 1.4bn).