The Danish arm of Nordic major Svensk Filmindustri (SF) has signed a first look deal with the young production outfit Buttenschoen & Budde.

'Our aim is to finance and initiate projects from young professionals and new talents,' explained producer Mads Buttenschoen. 'What we can offer is an incentive for the development of low-budget features. With the support from SF we can finance the development of five so far. You could call us a development company, as we don't mind co-producing the films with others like Zentropa or Nimbus Film. We just want to develop them ourselves. The films can be in any genre, from children's films to horror, as long as the focus is on characters and story.'

Buttenschoen says they will also apply for support from the Danish Film Institute or other funding sources.

Michael Fleischer, managing director of SF Film & Video in Denmark, said: 'This is a very exciting and so far unexplored area, which can bring much good. As a relatively new player in Denmark, we are happy to be able to hook up with what we hope will be a lot of new talent.'

Buttenschoen & Budde was established in 1999 by Mads Buttenschoen and animation director Erling Budde, who graduated from the Danish Film School in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Since then the duo has developed the feature-length animation Orla Frog Snapper, and is currently in production with 26 half-hour episodes of the teenage-oriented animation series Billy Boy 900.