Of picture book cows and quirky warlocks

The picture book cow Lieselotte comes to the big screen: InLieselotte - The film (400,000 euros, WunderWerk, Hamburg), the idyllic country life is thrown into disarray when Lieselotte's loving farmer's wife is kidnapped. Directors are Cherifa Bakhti, Dieter Riepenhausen and Karsten Killerich, the script was written by Claudia Kaiser, Lisa Clodt and Martin Lickleder. The animated film, which is based on the children's books by Alexander Steffensmeier, has already received support as part of the German-Danish Co-Production Development Initiative.

The quirky warlockCatweazle is back and has inadvertently conjured himself into the present day in Sven Unterwald's film of the same name (300,000 euros, Tobis Filmproduktion, Berlin). In the remake of the British television classic - written by Bernd Eilert and Claudius Pläging - the North German comedian Otto Waalkes slips into the role of the old druid. The team will be filming in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein for almost two weeks in the autumn.

In his drama, Hamburg-based Directors Kilian Riedhof tells the story of theYou Will Not Have My Hate (300,000 euros, Komplizen Film, Berlin) tells the true story of Antoine Leiris, who loses his beloved wife Hélène in the terrorist attack on the Bataclan in Paris. In a moving Facebook post, he counters the hatred of the attackers with his love for his three-year-old son. And yet he is in danger of losing his footing in his grief. The script was written by the North German team of authors Jan Braren, Marc Blöbaum and Kilian Riedhoff and the French author Stéphanie Kalfon.

InZorro by up-and-coming director Ronny Trocker (300,000 euros, Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Lübeck), the well-to-do couple Nina and Jan take on the task of advising a political election campaign. However, Nina's oppositional stance leads to a rift with her husband. In order to at least save their marriage, they spend a weekend on the Belgian coast - and fall victim to a mysterious attack on arrival. The "Zorro" team will spend 12 days filming in Hamburg.

A total of twelve projects will receive production funding totalling 2.61 million euros. Of this, 1.2 million euros will go to four projects directed by women: in addition to "Lieselotte - The Film", these include the dramaThe great freedom by up-and-coming Hamburg director Wendla Nölle and Script Writer Greta Lorez (300,000 euros, Tamtam Film, Hamburg), the animation seriesMinus three by Sandra Schießl (250,000 euros, TRIKK 17, Hamburg, written by Andreas Völlinger and Armin Prediger) and the children's filmLaura's star by Directors Joya Thome and Script Writer Claudia Seibl (250,000 euros, Westside Filmproduktion, Krefeld).

project development two films, includingA week in Diyarbakir by Ayse Polat (50,000 euros, Mîtosfilm, Berlin). Seven scripts were funded with a total of 214,000 euros, includingWalk to Syracuse by Heide Schwochow and Directors Lars Jessen (40,000 euros, Bird & Bird Film, Hamburg) and the special children's filmLasse, Lovis and life by Script Writer Maike Rasch and Directors Friedemann Fromm (25,000 euros, Wunderwerk, Hamburg). In addition, 415,000 euros in distribution funding will go to nine projects, such as Christian Schwochow's film adaptation of the novelGerman lesson (70,000 euros, Wild Bunch Germany, Berlin) and the animated filmBayala (75,000 euros, Universum Film, Munich).

A detailed overview of all funded projects is available here.

The funding decisions were made on Wednesday, 12 June 2019, Steen Bille, Christian Granderath, Sophie Molitoris, Peter Preisser, Caroline von Senden and Helge Albers.