Because everything starts with an idea

Helge AlbersCEO of Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein: "Before a script is created or an idea becomes a prototype, you need one thing above all: time to think and space to try things out and experiment. In this sensitive and trend-setting initial phase, we keep Script Writers' backs free with our funding for treatments and ideas. Research is carried out, ideas are brainstormed, written down and discarded. This is time-consuming work, which we support financially and with external dramaturges."

Treatment funding (feature-length fiction and documentary films) In the dramaNeighbourhood (7,000 euros) by Script Writer Jesper Petzke, a former pimp rebels against modern St Pauli. HFBK graduate Hans Stützer and Lasse Koch from Hamburg are on board as co-authors. The story of a political prisoner who has been released for three days to attend her sister's funeral and has to decide the fate of her sick father is the subject ofI was home when I got there (6,000 euros) by Mahnaz Mohammadi. The Iranian Director last screened her film "Son - Mother" at Filmfest Hamburg 2020, for which Berlinale winner Mohammad Rasoulof wrote the script. Hamburg-based Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein are planning an animated film about an escaped pet bird withBird of the Year (6,000 euros). Another 6,000 euros will go to the tragicomedyFat life by HMS graduate Matthias Koßmehl and his co-author Oliver Kracht about a bus driver who blackmails politicians and industrialists with explosive video footage. A newly assembled family in an escape room is the subject ofFamily Escape (6,000 euros) by Hamburg-based Script Writer Manuel Ostwald and his co-author Anja Gurres. Script Writer Florian Eichinger from Hamburg ("Die Hände meiner Mutter") takes the audience* intoPixel dancer (6,000 euros) into the life of the programmer Beta, who wants to break out of her hamster wheel in a start-up. The treatment of the comedy Hosenscheisser by Hamburg-based Script Writer Jonas Rothlaender is being funded with 5,650 euros. 5,000 euros each will be awarded to the coming of age storyMidnight Scream by Gisele Mbamu from Schleswig-Holstein and the comedySugar storage provided by Hannah Martin and Melanie Waelde.

Promotion of ideas (innovative audiovisual moving image content) The projectCURRENT(6,000 euros) is a comedic thriller mockumentary that uses smartphone messengers and social media to directly address and connect with the audience. The characters are part of a production of the Shakespeare play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The projectWiFight Academy (€5,000, Curly Pictures, Hamburg) by the two Script Writers Felix Schabbehard and Naya Bindzus also receives idea funding and focuses on five stranded social media stars in their fight against linear entertainment.

What exactly does treatment and idea promotion mean? Script Writers can receive financial support of up to 10,000 euros for their treatment (feature-length fiction and documentary films) or for their ideas in the field of innovative audiovisual moving image content. The funds are not awarded as a success-based loan, as is usually the case, but as a grant. Integrated into the funding is dramaturgical support, which is provided by the FFHSH. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis - regardless of the expected production budget. The CEO of the FFHSH decides on the awarding of Fundings.

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