Thenumber of entries for this year's Berlinale Co-Production Market (BCM) is up 25%on 2005.

Morethan 300 projects from 58 countries have been submitted for the third editionof the market, which runs from February 12-14.

BCMproject manager Sonja Heinen said there had been a noticeablerise in entries from Asia and India.

She saidshe was "very satisfied" with the range of projects submitted.

"Theyare very diverse, but there are not so many coming-of-age stories (unlike 2005).

"Wehave political subjects and many projects living from a particular atmosphere,and there are also many about human relationships."

Filmssubmitted to BCM, whose main partners are again the German regional fund MDMand the European Union's MEDIA Plus Programme, must have a budget between $2.9m-11.8m (Euros 2m-10m) with at least 30% of the financing already in place.

Inaddition, the producer applying has to have already completed at least one internationalco-production. (An exception is made for projects from Eastern Europe, Africa,Asia or Latin America, which can have budgets starting at Euros 1m.)

Accordingto Heinen, the Berlinale's third Co-Production Market will feature a maximum of30 projects made up of 20-24 official projects, three as part of theRotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative and three for the World Cinema Marketsidebar.

TheBCM will also serve as a showcase for 15 projects from successful applicants tothe Berlinale Talent Campus, which will be presented to potential co-producingpartners in the Talent Project Market.

Theseprojects will be selected from 215 submissions this month by an internationaljury comprising Heinen, the Maurits Binger Institut's Ido Abram, Cologne-basedproducer Annette Pisacane of Cameo Film, the Israel Film Fund's Katriel Schoryand Pandora Film production executive Elena Trifonova.

Unlikethe first two editions of the Co-Production Market, this year's eventwill run for an extra day to give participants moreopportunities to network with potential partners.

"The[pre-arranged one-to-one] meetings are the heart of the event but we will havejust one case study each morning and then so-called 'country tables' on twoafternoons where representatives from the most popular co-producing territories- Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Canada and the USA - willprovide information about the opportunities for co-production."

Theidea is to follow this with an hour of speed-matching for producers.

As Heinen explained, the additional day will be"another chance for producers to meet on an informal basis in a relaxedatmosphere" - there will be no more official one-to-one meetings that day- "and also an opportunity for us to build on the collaboration with theFrankfurt Book Fair.'

A number of publishers have been invited to present8-10 selected book properties with the potential for adaptation to the cinemaat a 'Breakfast & Books' event on February 14.