The German state has extended its film investment programme for a further four years.

The German state of Hessen will invest €20m in film over the next four years after launching a third round of its film investment programme.

Eva Kühne-Hörmann (pictured), the State minister, said HessenInvestFilm III will build on its previous successes as well as introducing new elements.

She also announced that Michael Schmid-Ospach, the former chief executive of North Rhine-Westphalia’s regional fund Filmstiftung NRW, has been appointed to the fund’s new selection committee. It will meet for the first time on April 28.

Other members include Paul Steinschulte, managing director of Universal Pictures International Germany, Benjamin Herrmann from distributor Majestic Filmverleih and writer-director Rolf Silber.

Administered by the Wirtschafts- und Infrastruktur Bank des Landes Hessen (WIBank), the HessenInvestFilm programme allocates conditionally repayable loans to the producers of German and international commercially and artistically promising feature films, TV movies, documentaries, animation films and TV formats.

The HessenInvestFilm II programme was  launched in 2006 and supported a total of 41 projects with more than €18m. The projects included Stefan Ruzowitzky’s Oscar-winning The Counterfeiters, Margarethe von Trotta’s Vision and Gavin Millar’s Schweitzer.