Apologising that he actually gave them more money than they went to strike for, Finnish culture minister Stefan Wallin has complied with Finnish producers' demands of increasing state funds for film production.

As recommended by the Finnish Parliament's education, culture and audit committees, Wallin confirmed that the revenue from the state lottery be spent on culture and sports activities rather than cover rental costs as proposed in the first draught of the budget.

Of the $15m (Euros 10.1m) additional allocation from the lottery, $3m (Euros 2m) will go to Finnish cinema, including$2.5m (Euros 1.7m) straight for production and $445,000 (Euros 300,000) for children's films and digitisation of small theatres in the province.

On Sept 3, 30 Finnish producers decided to refrain from instigating new feature films as Wallin's previously announced 8% growth of production funding was replaced by 0. They called off their action earlier this month without having received direct promises their demands be met.

The industry is currently subsidised by $20m (Euros 13.5m) per year to realise 10-14 features. The government has previously announced that by 2011 the budget for production and distribution will reach $39.7m (Euros 27m).

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