Franco-German broadcaster Arte is partnering with French drama producer GMT to produce 10 TV movies under the strand name Masculin/Feminin (Male/Female), which will examine issues of equality between men and women around the world.

As with previous Arte drama series, Petites Cameras, Masculin/Feminin is to be shot using DV cameras.

Two of the films in the Petites Cameras collection - Claude Chabrol's La Chambre Des Magiciennes and Jean-Pierre Sinapi's Nationale 7 - won awards at the latest Berlin film festival. Chambre took the FRIPESCI prize and the Public Prize went to Nationale 7.

Budgets for the Masculin/Feminin films are expected to average $577,000 (FFr4m), with Arte tipping in about $432,760 (FFr3m). The movies will be shot outside of France.

India's Mira Nair, Japan Kurosawa Kyoshi, Morocco's Nabil Ayouch and Brazil's Tata Amarai are among the foreign film-makers which have been approached to contribute, along with French film-makers such as Bernard Stora, Helene Angel, Laurence Ferreira-Barbosa and Catherine Corsini.

GMT is currently producing the mini-series Les Miserables, starring Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich, and is also developing Napoleon, which is to topline Christian Clavier.