The sequel to the 2001 hit animation feature Der Kleine Eisbaer (The Little Polar Bear) and new films by Grill Point's Andreas Dresen, Mostly Martha's Sandra Nettelbeck and Sonnenallee's Leander Hausmann are among the projects receiving a total of Euros 3.2m from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) in its latest round of funding.

The largest sum - Euros 800,000 - went to Thilo Graf Rothkirch's Berlin-based animation studio Cartoon Film for the production of Der Kleine Eisbaer II, with Euros 600,000 going to Nettelbeck's family entertainment Sergeant Pepper (Screen Daily, June 2003) and Euros 500,000 each being channelled into Hausmann's film, which reunites him with Sonnenallee co-author Thomas Brussig and is set against the backdrop of the former East German army, NVA - Manoever Schneeflocke, and to the latest feature starring German comic Otto Waalkes, Sieben Zwerge - Maenner Allein Im Wald, a contemporary send-up of the Snow White story.

In addition, the FFA allocated Euros 400,000 to both Dresen's adaptation of the Christoph Hein novel Willenbrock, about a man from the ex-GDR who initially seems to have adjusted well to life in reunified Germany by working as a used-car salesman, and to writer-director Christian Alvart's Antikoerper (Antibodies) which will be produced by Berlin-based Medienkontor Movie.