Sequels of this year's local box-office hits Wild Soccer Bunch 3 and WildChicks are among eight projects backed with more than $3.97m (Euros 3.1m)production funding by the German Federal Film Board (FFA) at its latestsitting.

The largest amount - $768,569 (Euros 600,000) - went to SamFilm's fourthinstalment in The Wild Soccer Bunch franchise, which will bedirected again by Joachim Masannek. The third film based on Masannek's bookseries has taken more than $12.42m (Euros 9.7m) at the German box office so farand will be in Telepool's sales lineup at the forthcoming Cannes Market.

Meanwhile, Bavaria Film producer Uschi Reich will be working again withdirector Vivian Naefe on a second feature film based on Cornelia Funke's bestsellingWild Chicks books, Die Wilden Huehner Und Die Liebe, with $512,419 (Euros 400,000)backing from the FFA.

Last week, Masannek and Naefe's projects were awarded $1.28m (Euros 1m)and $896,804 (Euros 700,000), respectively, by the Bavarian Film & TelevisionFund at its last funding session.

Among the other projects backed by the FFA are Pornorama, the next featureby Sophie Scholl director Marc Rothemund, about the beginnings of theGerman sex film industry at the end of the 1960s, to be produced by BerndEichinger for Constantin Film Produktion; neue deutsche Filmgesellschaft'sanimation feature Prinzessin Lillifee; Detlev Buck's family film HaendeWeg Von Mississippi; and Doris Doerrie's documentary portrait of theCalifornian restauranteur Edward Espe Brown in How To Cook Your Life.

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