Dieter Kosslick willcontinue to serve as festival director at the Berlin International FilmFestival for at least another five years.

A spokesman for Germany'sState Minister of Culture Christina Weiss confirmed to ScreenDaily.com that thedecision to extend 57-year-old Kosslick's contract had been made at a sittingof the supervisory board of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH(KBB) which Weiss chairs.

Kosslick took over fromMoritz de Hadeln as festival director on May 1, 2001 after having previouslyworked for two decades as a public film funder in North Rhine-Westphalia andHamburg.

The spokesman also revealedthat Weiss' ministry will provide Euros 1.2m towards the costsof there-location and expansion of the Berlinale's European Film Market at its newvenue in the Martin Gropius Bau from next year.