Award winning Britishshort film director Steve Hudson has received Euros 850,000 in funding for hisdebut feature Dragnet from Dusseldorf-based subsidy body FilmstiftungNRW.

Hudson won the Prix UIP in Venice last year forhis short Goodbye. Dragnet is about a group of Scottish fishermen whoget involved in the human trafficking of Chinese refugees to pay off the debtson their boat. It will be co-produced by Cologne-based Rosebud Films inassociation with broadcaster ZDF/arte with the UK's Little Bird and Belgium'sMinds Meet.

Filmstiftung NRW hasalso ploughed money into forthcoming feature films by directors Tom Tykwer, KenLoach, Oskar Roehler and Nicolaj Arcel. In all, 16 projects were awarded overEuros 5.4m production support.

Constantin Film Produktion received Euros750,000 for Tykwer's adaptation of Patrick Sueskind's international bestseller Perfume:The Story Of A Murderer which will begin shooting at Munich's Bavaria FilmStudios and locations in Barcelona and France from this July with the UK's BenWhishaw and Alan Rickman in the leads. Constantin has announced that Swissbusinesswoman Gigi Oeri will serve as a co-producer on the ambitious projectwhich have its worldwide theatrical release in autumn 2006 with DreamWorksdistributing the film in North America.

Another literary adaptation - Oskar Roehler'sinterpretation of Michel Houellebecq's novel Atomised - was allocatedEuros 400,000 for a co-production between Moovie the art of entertainment andConstantin Film, while Euros 250,000 was given to Ken Loach's next feature TheWind That Shakes The Barley which is being structured as a Europeanco-production between Berlin-based EMC Asset Management, the UK's Sixteen,Ireland's Element Films, Italy's Bianca Films/BIM Distribuzione and Spain's TornasolFilms.

Other international co-productions backed atwhat was the Filmstiftung's 100th funding session included Danish filmmakerNicolaj Arcel's family ghost film Island Of Lost Souls, which will beproduced by Cologne-based Pain Unlimited with Denmark's Zentropa Entertainment,Sweden's Memfis Film and the UK's Island of Lost Souls; Douglas Mackinnon's TheFlying Scotsman as a German-UK co-production between zero west, PeterBroughan's Bronco Film and Doorsa Production; Dror Shaul's Sweet Mudwhich is set to be co-produced by Bettina Brokemper's Heimatfilm with Israel'sSirocco Productions and Cinephil Productions and France's Tu Vas Voir.