New features by Helmut Dietl, Marco Kreuzpaintner and Didi Danquart are among seven projects which received Euros 2.9m from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) in its latest round of funding.

The largest sum - Euros 700,000 - was awarded to Dietl's melodramatic comedy update of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Vom Suchen Und Finden Der Liebe, which is set to star Moritz Bleibtreu, Alexandra Maria Lara, Uwe Ochsenknecht and Anke Engelke. The co-production between Dietl's production company Diana Film and Norbert Preuss' Fanes Film had previously received Euros 1.4m from the Bavaria regional fund FFF Bayern.

Meanwhile, Euros 600,000 went to Papa Loewe Filmproduktion's animation feature Oh, Wie Schoen Ist Panama, Euros 400,000 each to SAM Film's Christmas family entertainment film Es Ist Ein Elch Entsprungen and Richard Claus' Herr Der Diebe, and Euros 250,000 each to Kreuzpaintner coming out tale Sommersturm and Ulrich Aselmann's drama Winterreise.

Danquart's German-French co-production Offset received a total of Euros 400,000 production support under the auspices of the German-French Funding Agreement, with Euros 300,000 coming from the FFA and Euros 100,000 from the CNC (the project had already received backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg).

In addition, Euros 70,000 was granted by the FFA for training measures at next year's Berlinale Talent Campus, Cartoon Movie, and the Franco-German vocational training programme for exhibitors.