New international co-productions by Poland's Agnieszka Holland, Serbia's Oleg Novkovic and Sweden's Björn Runge are among a raft of feature projects supported with a total of over $ 11.4m (Euros 9m) by German public film funders at their latest funding sessions.

Holland's German-Canadian-Polish co-production Hidden about the struggle for survival by Jewish refugees over 14 months in Nazi-occupied Lvov received over $ 1m (Euros 800,000) from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) and Leipzig-based MDM.

Producer Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv also picked up $ 406,000 (Euros 320,000) from the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund (FFHSH) for another drama set in the Second World War and focussing on the Nazi persecution of the Jews: Björn Runge's adaptation of Marianne Fredriksson's novel Simon (And The Oaks) to be produced with partners from Sweden and Norway.

Meanwhile, MDM awarded $ 288,000 (Euros 227,000) production support to Belgrade-based film-maker Oleg Novkovic's drama White White World which had been pitched at the Connecting Cottbus co-production market in November 2007 and now has ostlicht filmproduktion onboard as German co-producer.

Other projects supported include:

  • Michael Schaack's CGI animation feature Glennkill, based on the international bestseller by Leonie Swann
  • David Pinillos' comedy Bon Appetit, produced by Egoli Tossell Film with partners in Switzerland and Spain
  • Detlev Buck's Same Same But Different, adapted from Benjamin Prüfer's autobiographical novel Wohin Du Auch Gehst
  • Peter Timm's Berlin Wall comedy Liebe Mauer
  • Denis Todorovic's tragicomic culture clash Sascha about a 19-year-old boy from a Montenegrin Gastarbeiter family secretly coming out in Cologne.

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