Pirate girls & Hamburg bike couriers

COMMITTEE NORTHBUSTER

Florian Dietrich won several awards in 2021 with his feature film "Toubab" - now the Directors has turned his attention to the world of couriers in Hamburg with his new tragicomedy: InDrift (863,000 euros, Wüste Film, Hamburg) is about bicycle courier Johannes, who knows every corner of Hamburg but has no direction in life: his studies are on hold, he has a momentous one-night stand - and an accident throws him off course. Until his retired father suddenly turns up and stands in for him as a courier - although Walter actually just wanted to tell his son that he will soon die. The film will have 23 shooting days in Hamburg and three shooting days in Schleswig-Holstein. The script for the film, which is based on the novel "Pedalpilot Doppel-Zwo" by Wolf Schmid, is by Hamburg Media School graduate Brix Vinzent Koethe. Shooting will start in September 2023. The script was already supported in 2020 as part of the 3x3 incentive funding programme from MOIN Film Fund.

COMMITTEE HIGH END

It's getting adventurous: in the animated filmBuccaneer Moses (775,000 euros, Ulysses Filmproduktion, Hamburg), based on the children's book of the same name by Hamburg native Kirsten Boie, centres on the pirate girl Moses. Raised by a wild and loving bunch of pirates centred around Captain Klaas, she discovers the world from the sea. But one day Moses is kidnapped by Klaas' greatest adversary - and the adventure begins. The German-Spanish-Austrian co-production by Directors Florian Westermann and Script Writer Richie Conroy is being realised largely in Hamburg. The main producer is Ulysses Films, which is currently showing the Terry Pratchett adaptation "The Amazing Maurice the Cat" in German cinemas. The German co-producer is the Hamburg-based company Letterbox.

Further production funding goes to the international co-production Iron Box (100,000 euros, Seven Elephants, Berlin) by Director and Script Writer Julia von Heinz. In her new film, American Ruth travels to Poland with her father Edek in 1991 to get to the bottom of her Jewish family's legacy. Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry play the leading roles. Part of the post production takes place in Hamburg. The literary film adaptation is based on the novel "Too Many Men" by Lily Brett.

Screenplay funding goes to the series projectThe Mountain (40,000 euros, Heimathafen Film & Media, Hamburg) by Florian Eichinger ("Die Hände meiner Mutter"), in which a 7-star design hotel on a steep slope is destroyed by a landslide, in which only a few guests survive and have to reorganise themselves.

The High End Committee awards 30,000 euros in distribution funding to Akropolis Bonjour - Monsieur Thierry goes on holiday (Happy Entertainment/MT Trading, Strande near Kiel) by François Uzan.

A detailed overview of all projects funded by the High End Committee can be found here.

The High End Committee is responsible for films and series with production costs of over 3.5 million euros. The funding decision was made on 9 February by Christian Granderath, Murat Isgüder, Wenka von Mikulicz, Caroline von Senden, Ipek Zübert and Helge Albers.

The Nordbuster Committee is responsible for films that are of particular cultural and economic importance to the region. The annual funding sum of one million euros is provided by Warner Bros. in the form of a trust fund. The funding decision was made on 10 February by Maike Haas, Benjamina Mirnik-Voges and Peter Preisser.