Germany Boosts Film Funding

COLOGNE, Germany - While much of southern Europe is chopping away at state film subsidies, Germany on Friday boosted funding for film shoots, adding an addition $12.7 million (€10 million) annually to the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).

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The increase brings the DFFF's annual budget to $90 million (€70 million), cash used to support local and visiting productions that shoot in Germany. Recent productions to benefit from DFFF funding include the fantasy epic Cloud Atlas, Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, the vampire drama Only Lovers Left Alive from Jim Jarmusch and the animated 3D film Tarzan featuring Kellan Lutz and Spencer Locke.

“It's a good day for culture in Germany,” said German culture minister Bernd Neumann. "Especially when you look at the drastic cuts seen in all other comparable European countries, this budget increase is an extraordinary success.”

The German alliance of television and film producers also welcomed the move to strengthen the DFFF.

"For us the DFFF isn't just a financing instrument," explained Alexander Thies, chairman of the German producers alliance, "By stimulating international co-productions it has made a decisive contribution to the production landscape (in Germany) so that we are now among the best locations in the world."

In total, the German parliament approved a budget for 2013 that increases spending for film and culture by $127 million (€100 million) to just over $1.6 billion (€1.28 billion) annually.