Three projects were supported by the CNC/FFA's German-French Funding Commission this week from its 'mini-traite' co-production fund.

Funding of $737,925 (Euros 500,000) went to Gaspar Noe's Japan-set Enter The Void which is being produced as a majority French co-production by Fidelite Films with Berlin-based Essential Filmproduktion and Italy's BIM Distribuzione. Currently being shot in Japanese and English in Tokyo, the director's third feature stars Olly Alexander and Sara Stockbridge.

The French-German committee also gave $516,550 (Euros 350,000) to Dutch-born Ludi Boeken's Unter Bauern, which is based on Marga Spiegel's autobiographical novel Retter In Der Nacht. The German majority co-production by former WDR commissioning editor Joachim von Mengershausen's company FilmForm Koeln and France's Acajou Films recounts the true story of how Spiegel, her husband and daughter were saved from deportation and certain death in WWII concentration camps by being hidden by farmers in Westphalia.

And, around $737,925 (Euros 500,000) went to Caroline Bottaro's Die Schachspielerin (literal translation: The Chess Player), a French majority co-production between Mon Voisin Productions and Munich-based Blueprint Film.

The groups noted that 2007 is set to be a record year for co-productions between France and Germany with more than 30 projects currently being shot or planned - three times more than the totals in the previous two years.

According to statistics prepared by Unifrance and German Films, the CNC had officially recognised 18 Franco-German co-productions by the beginning of this October. These included seven German majority co-productions such as Helma Sanders-Brahms' Clara, Marie Noelle and Peter Sehr's The Anarchist's Wives, and Michael Glawogger's Das Vaterspiel, and 11 French majority productions ranging from Jaco van Dormael's Mr Nobody through Christophe Barratier's Faubourg 36 to Abbas Fahdel's Dawn Of The World.

Another 13 co-productions are waiting for the CNC's official 'agrement' to be issued by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2008. They include Michael Haneke's Der Weisse Band, Eckhart Fingberg's animation feature Jasper - Reise Bis Ans Ende Der Welt, and Benoit Jacquot's adaptation of the Alberto Moravia novel Capri 1934.