New projects by Paul Anderson and Roman Polanski are among seven features which have received a total $3m (DM 6.42m) production backing this week from the Berlin-based German Federal Film Board (FFA).

Anderson's Resident Evil, which has begun shooting at Berlin's Adlershof Studios with Milla Jovovich (The Million Dollar Hotel) and Michelle Rodriguez (Girlfight), received $702,000 (DM 1.5m) while Polanski's The Pianist, currently based at the Babelsberg Studios, was awarded $468,000 (DM 1m).

DM 1m also went to Michael Herbig's sequel of his 2000 box office hit Erkan & Stefan Und Der Stein Des Bösen, and to Bioskop-Film's production of Til Schauder's Goldrausch, while Columbia TriStar's German production arm Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion picked up $655,000 (DM 1.4m) for debut feature filmmaker Maria von Heland's Big Girls Don't Cry.

Support was also given to Sönke Wortmann for his football project Das Wunder Von Bern $141,000 (DM 300,000) and Philip Gröning's La Grande Chartreuse $80,000 (DM 170,000).