The first edition of the Berlinale Co-Production Market opened for business with around 200 participants at the Talent Campus venue of the House of World Cultures.

32 projects, including new features by Daniel Burman, Alexander Sokurov, Robert Glinski, Susanne Bier, Goran Paskaljevic and Pang Ho Cheung, were selected from 230 entries to be pitched in individual meetings to potential co-production partners.

In addition, the Market is collaborating with the Rotterdam International Film Festival on a third outing for the "Rotterdam-Berlinale Express" to showcase five projects which were presented at this year's CineMart. These include Dagur Kari's The Good Heart (Iceland) and Simone Horrocks' The Paraffin Child (New Zealand).

These 37 projects are being joined by another 30 from participants of this year's Berlinale Talent Campus. They are featured in the Co-Production Market catalogue as the Talent Project Market, with five being chosen to make public pitchings today (Monday, Feb 9).

"These five talents are the only ones to be pitching in public," Co-Production Market organiser Sonja Moerkens said. "As a reward, they will each receive a Euros 4,000 prize from the (German collection society) VFF."

The lineup of Market projects is supplemented by another 30-odd features in search of production partners, which have been gathered into a so-called Black Market.

The two-day event will be complemented by a series of panel discussions on such issues as the current climate for financing independent films, the developments in Eastern Europe, digital recoupment, and a case study of John Boorman's Country Of My Skull.