German actor Peter Lohmeyer (Playing Swede) is to make his directorial debut with one of the 12 shorts for the "99Euro Film" initiative which was launched by this year's Oldenburg Film Festival (September 5-9) along the lines of the Slamdance Film festival's $99 programme.

Other participants who have agreed to the initiative's parameters of having no more than Euros 99 to make a five-minute film on mini DV include Matthias Glasner known for his Sexy Sadie, Esther Gronenborn (alaska.de), Vanessa Jopp (Vergiss Amerika), Frieder Schlaich (Otomo), Martin Walz (Liebe Luegen) and Mark Schlichter (Ex).

Short films are also expected from actress Nicolette Krebitz, who recently made her directorial debut with her first feature Jeans, Berlin-based filmmaker Miriam Dehne, local Oldenburg director Sebastian Beer, Hamburg-based Daniel Petersen, and from RP Kahl who is responsible for the project's artistic direction and coordination.

Moreover, the initiative has attracted several of Germany's up-and-coming acting talents to appear in the films, including Marek Harloff, Alexandra Maria Lara, Wotan Wilke Moehring, Antonio Wannek, Laura Tonke and Detlef Bothe (who also wrote two of the films' scripts).

According to the project's organisers, the filmmakers have been extraordinarily creative in the way they have spent their 99 Euros. A particularly radical approach was taken by Daniel Petersen for his So Billig! (August 2001) when he stole the necessary DV cassettes and spent the 99 Euros on 10 crates of beer.