The German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) has supported 50% fewer projects over the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year.

According to the DFFF, 23 projects with total production costs of $198.8m (€141.9m) and a “German spend” of$142.1m (€101.4m) were backed with $24.8m (€17.7m) up to June 30.

The projects covered nine international co-productions including Quentin Tarantino’s Cannes competition film Inglourious Basterds, Roman Polanski’s thriller The Ghost, Benedek Fliegauf’s first English-language film c, which received a total of $8.27m (€5.9m) from the Berlin-based fund.

In comparison, last year by the end of June, 43 projects had been supported with a total of $37.4 (€26.7m), including $8.1m (€5.8m) for Ninja Assassin, $5.16m (€3.68m) for Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, and $2.32m (€1.66m) for Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon.

DFFF project manager Christine Berg explained that “many applications have been pushed back by months this year” as a result of the global financial crisis and the uncertainty surrounding the future operations of the FFA, with several large productions now planning to begin shooting in the second half of the year.

Berg added that, in the last two months alone, she had received more than 20 applications with a volume of around $28.3m (€17m) at the DFFF. Several productions that began shooting in Germany from April have still yet to have their funding confirmed, including Christopher Smith’s medieval mystery thriller Black Death, the spy comedy Jerry Cotton and the animated feature The Sandman And The Lost Sand Of Dreams.

There are also numerous productions set to roll in Germany in the coming months including the sequel to the box-office hit Lilly The Witch, and Alex Winter’s 3D remake of the1987 fantasy film The Gate.

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