The increasing competition between the German Länder to attract film productions to their respective regions has taken on a new dimension this week with Bavaria’s introduction of a € 6m dedicated programme for international productions over the next two years .

“International film productions, in particular, can give the film hub of Bavaria an additional boost,” media minister Thomas Kreuzer said. “The whole Bavarian film industry can profit from this – from the shoot through to services, post production and special effects.”

In addition, Kreuzer revealed that the Bavarian regional government would be increasing the support for its film fund FFF Bayern by an additional € 900,000 for both 2013 and 2014 “to also clearly set the Bavarian film funding system on the path to growth.”

FFF Bayern, which also receives financing from public broadcasters BR and ZDF and private TV channels ProSiebenSAT.1 and RTL, had an overall budget of € 28.1m last year, with the Bavarian Bank Fund providing a further € 1.5m.

Projects supported by FFF Bayern this year have included Bernard Rose’s Paganini biopic, starring violinist David Garrett, Sherry Hormann’s Natascha Kampusch drama 3096, Sherry Hormann’s Exit Marrakech, and Dagmar Seume’s Hanni & Nanni 3, based on the Enid Blyton children classics.

Internationally renowned companies operating out of Bavaria include Scanline, Trixter Film, ARRI, Constantin Film and the Tele-München Group.

Meanwhile, Saxony-Anhalt has decided to increase its share of the budget for the Leipzig-based film fund Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) annually by € 250,000 for 2012 and 2013.

As state minister Rainer Robra, head of the State Chancellery, explained, each funding Euro generated between two and four Euros “which flow back from the filmmakers into the regional economic cycle. Through the work of MDM, such prestigious projects as Der Medicus, The Last Station or 1 ½ Ritter could be brought to Saxony-Anhalt. The associated news coverage is priceless as an image gain for our Land.”

Indeed, the region couldn’t have wished for anything better as a headline-grabber than when Helen Mirren had problems in pronouncing the region’s name at the The Last Station’s press conference and spoke instead of Sexy-Anhalt!

Recent projects supported by MDM include Oleg Novkovic’s Others, Pepe Danquart’s Lauf, Junge, Lauf, Robert Thalheim’s comedy Eltern, and Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit’s black comedy The Last One Turns The Light Off.

But it is not all good news: Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB) is facing a reduction in its financing from the Land of Brandenburg who has announced a cut in funding by € 400,000 from next year.

This had come as quite a surprise to its Berlin partner at MBB who had previously indicated that it was intending to increase its support by € 530,000 in 2013 and € 780,000 in 2014.

As it is, the city of Berlin is already channeling more into MBB - € 10m a year – than Brandenburg’s involvement with € 7.7m.

Projects recently backed by MBB have included Fatih Akin’s The Cut, Til Schweiger’s Koköwääh 2, Celina Murga’s Third Bank Of The River, Markus Goller’s Frau Ella, and Micah Magee’s Petting Zoo.

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