The film arm of Franco-German channel Arte, Arte France Cinema, has created its own subsidiary Arte/Cofinova - designed to increase Arte's ability to fund film production.

Arte/Cofinova will take its capital in part from Sofica Cofinova and from Arte France Cinema. (A Sofica is a fund which allows tax breaks for its investors.)

Cofinova has extended a Euros 400,000 line of credit which will allow for "investments of Euros 100,000 to 200,000 spread out over three to four films," said Arte.

Arte already has a mandate to invest in about 20 films per year with a minimum budget of Euros 7m but thanks to its status as a European channel, it is not held to the same investment obligations as other French networks.

Arte Cinema France's Michel Reilhac told ScreenDaily.com that while the investment ceiling on each film will remain at Euros 400,000 "there may be one or two more films financed per year but those will be only films without television financing. Arte will take a small part of the co-production without buying broadcast rights." Reilhac also noted that three documentaries per year will be produced beyond the 20 feature fiction films.

At the first meeting of Arte's selection committee in January, the following films were chosen to be co-produced with the network: Racines Et Ancetres by Pavel Lounguine a Franco-Russian co-production with CDP, De Profundis by Antoine Santana from France's Film En Stock, Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now a co-production between France, Germany, Israel and Holland, Sangre by Lisandro Alonso from France and Argentina and Le Chanteur from Iraq's Kassem Hawal.