In its first outing, the Cannes Film Festival'sproject market for young film-makers - the Atelier - has had an impressive 50%success rate.

Nine out of the 18 directors selected were able to completefunding for their projects which should begin shooting quickly.

Budgeted between Euros 700,000 and Euros 1.73 million, thefast-tracked films are: Ulrike von Ribbeck's Sooner Or Later from Germany, Joachim Lafosse's RevolteIntime from Belgium, American RyanEslinger's When A Man Falls In The Forest, Leon Ivanga's L'Ombre De Liberty from Gabon, Narinam Turebayev's SunnyDay from Kazakhstan, Som OckSouthiphonh's Les Amis fromLaos, Gerardo Naranjo I'm Gonna Explode from Mexico, Paraguayan Paz Encina's Hamaca Paraguaya and Serbian Vladimir Perisic's TheOrdinary People.

During the Atelier, the filmmakers were able to meet withproducers, distributors and sales agents all set up by the Cannes Festival.

For those who didn't win backing, however, thingsmight not look so rosy. One filmmaker told ScreenDaily.com earlier in the week that the Atelier was his lastchance, otherwise he'd have to drop the project. His was not one of thefilms to find the necessary funding.