The BerlinSenate has increased its backing for Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB) this year by Euros 1.5m to bringthe regional fund's overall budget for film funding and location marketing toEuros 17.9m.

"We canreally use these additional funds as the run of film producers onBerlin-Brandenburg continues undiminished," noted MBB managing directorKirsten Niehuus who pointed out that the increasedfinancial commitment by Berlin would enable the funderto back even more promising projects this year.

The increase in MBB's 2005 budget comes just three months after localpublic broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)announced that it will provide the fund with an annual Euros1m for the backing of cinema-TV co-productions after similar arrangements concludedwith ProSieben, SAT.1, and ZDF.

This year, MBBhas backed new film projects by such filmmakers as SergeiBodrov (Mongol- The Early Years Of GhenghisKhan), Hal Hartley (Fay Grim),Paul Verhoeven (BlackBook), Michael Schorr (Schroeders Wunderbare Welt), Volker Schloendorff (Heldin Wider Willen) and Ute Wieland (FC Venus - Frauen Am Ball).