Stories from Mexico to Morocco

Directors Lena Vurma and Thorsten Klein dedicate their biopicLeonora in the morning light (200,000 euros, Dragonfly Films, Berlin) by the painter Leonora Carrington, who died in Mexico in 2011. Throughout her life, the surrealist artist struggled with her visionary imagination, which repeatedly unhinged her mind. The international team, which includes leading actors Olivia Vinall, Lars Eidinger and Ilse Salas, will spend around two weeks filming in a villa in Schleswig-Holstein. The script is based on the bestselling novel "Woman of the Wind" by Elena Poniatowska.

In Melisa Fatma Önel Tecimen's dramaSuddenly (60,000 euros, Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Lübeck) is about 40-year-old Reyhan, who suddenly can no longer perceive odours and decides to change her entire life. She disappears without leaving a message. The film was already supported last year with 10,000 euros as part of the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund. The Directors wrote the book together with Feride Çiçekoğlu.

The Moroccan-German-French-Belgian co-productionDeserts (60,000 euros, Niko Film, Berlin) is the brainchild of Director and Script Writer Faouzi Bensaïdi. Two friends work for a pittance in a debt collection agency in Morocco. One day, on a joyride in their car in the middle of the desert, they find a man tied to a motorbike - the start of an unexpected journey. Much of the post production will take place in Hamburg.

Further production funding is available for Olga DelanesWelcome to New Karabash (50,000 euros, Doppelplusultra Filmproduktion, Hamburg). The Documentary looks at the Russian industrial city of Karabash, which was once known as the dirtiest place in the world - and is now to be transformed into the cleanest city in the world in a major epoch-making project. The script is by Calle Overweg and Dmitri Vologdin. 30,000 euros in production funding will also go toLa Casa (Dirk Manthey Film, Hamburg) by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff from Chile, whose Documentary shows the effects of the Corona pandemic and a social revolt in Santiago de Chile.

Fundings in the area of project development are available for the episodic filmMen and children first (18,000 euros, Skalar Film, Hamburg) by Eike Weinreich and Zora Rux.

Screenplay funding goes to a total of seven projects: The queer crime-mystery seriesBRÜT (Ohne Falsch Film, Hamburg) by Script Writers Marian Freistühler and Oliver Bassemir will receive 30,000 euros and is about two young men who want to save the "Wilhelmsburg Wild Forest" from being cleared and fall in love with each other in the process. 22,000 euros for the dramaPetty Thieves (Fünferfilm, Hamburg) by Script Writer, Director and HFBK graduate Mate Ugrin, who won the First Steps Award in 2018. The comedy Station 17 (21,000 euros, Interzone Pictures, Nordhastedt) revolves around the inclusive Hamburg band of the same name - the script was written by Lothar Kurzawa. Four other scripts will each receive 20,000 euros: the Hamburg coming of age filmHanna and Angel by Tatiana Calasans, the melodramaMoorland Directors, Script Writer and film scholar Daniel Kulle from Hamburg, the dramaNothing of Nothing Remains (We do not remember) (Red Balloon Film, Hamburg) by 'Al Garib' Director Ameer Fakher Eldin andTrappeda psychodrama by Hamburg-based Script Writer and HMS graduate Florens Huhn.

Fundings in the area of completion were awarded to the two filmsThe Social Experiment (20,000 euros, Gipfelstürmer Film, Hamburg) by Hamburg-based Director Pascal Schröder and Jedermann und Ich (15,000 euros, Fünferfilm, Hamburg) by Hamburg-based Director and Script Writer Katharina Pethke. Distribution funding totalling 30,000 euros has been awarded to Sabrina Sarabi'sNo One's with the Calves (Filmwelt Verleihagentur, Munich).

Playback funding totalling 27,000 euros goes to four projects, including the 2021 edition ofEine Stadt sieht einen Filmthe joint project of Hamburg's art house and arthouse cinemas (13,000 euros).

An overview of all funded projects can be found here.

The funding decisions were made on 24 September 2021: Bettina Brokemper, Gabor Greiner, Timo Großpietsch, Manja Malz and Helge Albers.

The Director's Cut Committee is responsible for films and series with production costs of less than 3.5 million euros and cinema documentaries with production costs of less than 1.5 million euros.