New films by Andreas Dresen, Eoin Moore, Hans-Christian Schmid,John Stephenson and Sven Unterwaldt are among 12 projects backed with overEuros 3m by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg in its latest round of funding.

The largest amount - over Euros 1m - went to Constantin Film'sdrama Siegfried, to be directed by Sven Unterwaldt from a screenplay byTom Gerhardt and producer Herman Weigel.

Euros 450,000 was allocated to Martin Barry's romantic drama PreludeTo Parsifal and Euros 300,000 to John Stephenson's family entertainmentfilm The Life And Adventures of Santa Claus, which are both set to beproduced with Studio Babelsberg.

Supportwas also given to Andreas Dresen's next feature Sommer Vorm Balkon, tobe co-produced by Peter Rommel Productions with X-Filme Creative Pool at Berlinlocations from August 20; the 1970s-set drama Requiem, the firstproduction from director Hans-Christian Schmid's own company 23 1/2Filmproduktion; and to Eoin Moore's black comedy Im Schwitzkasten, to beproduced by moneypenny filmproduction.

Moreover, the Medienboard awarded production funding to TothoCrossmedia's documentary Dean Reed - Life Of An American In The GDR (afiction film about the enigmatic US actor-singer Dean Reed is reportedly beingdeveloped by Tom Hanks) and Hans-Christoph Blumenberg's docudrama Die LetzteSchlacht about the last days of the Second World War in and around Berlin.