Stefan Telegty and Helmut Hartl of Munich-based commercials production house Embassy of Dreams have joined forces with Cologne producer Bettina Brokemper to establish the film and TV production outfit Heimatfilm to develop and produce features by new German directors and European co-productions as well as act a service producer in Germany for international companies.

Brokemper told Screendaily that two thirds of Heimatfilm belongs to her, with the remaining third held by Telegty and Hartl who are serving as "business angels" for the new venture.

Included in Heimatfilm's development slate are MS Konstanza by writer-director Almut Getto, who won a Lola at this year's German Film Prize for the screenplay to her debut Fickende Fische (Do Fish Do It'), and Christoph Hochaeusler's Berlin-set thriller Lichtjahre (Lightyears) which is budgeted at around Euros2m and is set to be shot in 2005. Hochaeusler's feature debut This Very Moment(Milchwald) was premiered at the Berlinale's Forum in February.

In addition to running Heimatfilm, Brokemper will continue to serve as the managing director of Zentropa's production outpost in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Pain Unlimited, which was a co-producer on Lars von Trier's Dogville. Heimatfilm will be the service producer on Thomas Vinterberg's next feature Dear Wendy which will shoot in the region this autumn.

Brokemper will also continue to represent the interests of Hamburg-based production house Neue Impuls Film (NIF) in NRW. Two of the projects she has been developing for NIF - Mischa Alexander's Sportsman Of The Century and Eran Riklis' The Syrian Bride - are both due to go into production in the latter half of 2003.