New features by Thomas Vinterberg, Pedro Almodovar, the Brothers Quay, Jonathan English and Charles Dance are among 59 European film and TV projects supported with over Euros 2.3m by the European Commission's i2i Audiovisual scheme.

The new scheme was launched last July to help production companies access external funding from banks. It helps them pay for some of the cost of guarantees demanded by banks and part of the cost of a loan for financing productions.

The maximum sum of Euros 50,000 went in this round to production houses such as Lucky Punch (for Vinterberg's Dear Wendy), El Deseo (Almodovar's Bad Education), Mediopolis (the Quays' The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes), CMW Films (English's Minotaur) and Scala Productions.