The Berlinale has served as the ideal showcase for the new German distributor Timebandits films, which has four films showing in the festival's different sections.

While Fatih Akin's new feature Head-On (Gegen Die Wand) premiered in the Official Competition section, Andres Veiel's documentary Die Spielwuetigen unspooled in the Panorama, Felix Randau's Northern Star in the German Cinema market sidebar and Andrea Schuler and Oliver Ruts' Blue Skin (Flammend' Herz) in Perspektive Deutsches Kino.

"Veiel's film will be our first release with 30 prints which is quite a respectable number for a documentary," Egoli Tossell Film's Jens Meurer explained. "Meanwhile, Head-On will have between 100-120 prints which would be the upper reaches of what we will handle."

"It has been important to show that we aren't a 'just dealing in our documentaries' distributor, and we have been keen to have a modest and solid development," he continued.

According to Meurer, Timebandits has been on the lookout for potential pickups at this year's Berlinale and is set to acquire two titles from third parties as well as a "larger international film" which would be co-produced by Egoli Tossell Film.

Timebandits films was founded last autumn by leading German independent producers Egoli Tossell Film (Russian Ark) and Wueste Film (Head-On) with the Berlin-based exhibitor Timebandits Medien.