International co-productions with countries as diverse as Argentina, China, Spain, and Finland are among new projects supported with over $7.2m (€6m) by the two national funds German Federal Film Board (FFA) and German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).

The FFA’s project committee allocated $3.7m (€3.1m) to 13 projects, including $265,00 (€220,000) to veteran director Jeanine Meerapfel’s next feature film Der Deutsche Freund, which will be structured by Cologne-based Geissendörfer Film and Fernsehproduktion as a German-Argentinian co-production; $180,700 (€150,000) for Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger’s Running Stray (Vor die Hunde) which will be handled by The White Ribbon producer  X-Filme Creative Pool; and € 100,000 for Chinese director Dan Tang’s German directorial debut I Phone (working title) which will begin shooting in China in early July for Reverse Angle International as a co-production with Beijing-based Ray Productions.

Moreover, The Lives of Others producers Wiedemann & Berg Film received $540,072 (€ 450,000) for US screenwriter Jeremy Leven’s romantic comedy Girl On A Bicycle which is set to feature French actor-director Dany Boon in his first English-speaking role appearing opposite Vincenzo Amato and Louise Monot.

Meanwhile, the DFFF incentive programme has awarded $638,000 (€530,000) to Istvan Szabo’s The Door, adapted from the bestselling novel by the late Magda Szabo, which will be produced by Intuit Pictures with Hungary’s Filmart Studio from this September; and $617,000 (€512,533) to Hendrik Handloegten’s drama Das Fenster zum Sommer, starring Nina Hoss, Fritzi Haberlandt and Mark Waschke, as co-production between Zentropa Entertainments Berlin and Finland’s Edith Film Oy.

The latest international co-productions tapping into the DFFF’s funds also include Gerardo Olivares’ Entre Lobos, a modern version of the Jungle Book in the heart of Europe based on the true story of Marcos Rodriguez Pantoja who lived with wolves for many years. The € 4.5m co-production between Germany’s Sophisticated Films and Spain’s Wanda Vision has been shooting at locations in the Sierra de Cordoba, among others.

In addition, the DFFF’s automatic support is benefiting the production of a second animation feature film as part of the Princess Lillifee, The Little Ballerina franchise. Ansgar Niebuhr’s Princess Lillifee And The Unicorn is being produced by WunderWerk, a joint venture of ndF and BetaFilm, with Germany’s Universum Film and Caligari Film and France’s BAC Films.

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