The German regional funds Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung (MDM) and Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg are in talks with the Polish Culture Ministry to establish a development fund dedicated to joint projects by German and Polish producers.

MDM chief executive Manfred Schmidt is confident that a decision could be reached before the end of this year, with an announcement about the structure of the development possibly during next year's Berlinale in February. He explained at the CoCo Spezial German-Polish co-development meeting at last week's FilmFestival Cottbus that "financial and legal questions" still had to be resolved.

News about the fund came after the staging of the first German-Polish co-development meeting. Amongst the new projects being pitched were: Krzysztof Zanussi's (Der Frau Und Der Saenger), Agnieszka Holland's (Hanemann) and Guenter Meyer's (Der Dolch Des Batu Khan).