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Berlin / Potsdam – In its third new media funding round, Medienboard supported 2 series and 5 innovative audiovisual formats with a total of 610,000 euros.

Helge Jürgens, Medienboard managing director for new media funding: "The series and VR business boom in the capital region continues! This is evident in the current funding round's project once more: New partnerships between streaming platforms and broadcasting channels are promising signals. The multi-faceted and high-quality virtual reality entries make the various application possibilities of the medium even clearer. We intend to support these potentials with our funding!"

With "MaPa" (Readymade Films, production 300,000 euros), a Berlin series for platform JOYN co-produced with a German free-TV channel receives funding. "MaPa" follows protagonist Metin through tragically comedic stories as he moves through life more or less successfully as a single father to a one-year old daughter after his girlfriend’s sudden death. "MaPa" deals with existential matters of being a parent and a human being. For Readymade Films, "MaPa" is the second fictional series after the successful production "Culpa" (NBC Universal). It already received MBB funding during development.

"Kaputt" (“Broken”, Lozen Films, development 35000 euros) takes viewers on a trip into Berlin’s techno scene where they encounter stories surrounding origins, gentrification and identity. Through the series’ three young female leads, all of whom have different expectations of life, the two female producers and founders of Lozen Films send a strong signal for more gender balance in front of and behind the camera.

News from Anotherworld VR, fresh out of the Venice competition ("Venice VR") with "Pagan Peak VR": The VR experience "Komez Alef O" (70,000 euros) tells the story of Victor Isserlis, who fled the Nazis in 1941 as a five-year-old with his mother and his grandparents and managed to survive the Holocaust. "Komez Alef O" will be half testimony, half experience and promises to become a highly personal production.

A language is lost in the world every two weeks! VR experience "Kusunda" (NowHere Media, 25,000 euros) takes users into the world of indigenous language Kusunda. Its protagonist and co-creator is 83-year-old Gyani Maiya Sendie, who spent her youth as a nomad in Nepal's forests and is the last person to command the language. Using AI, the multi-user installation generates language-based interaction with the protagonist.

Sergei Prokofjew’s "Peter and the Wolf" in virtual reality (EuroArts Music International, 60,000 euros): Using a mixture of animated figures and photo-realistic 360° images, a magical, immersive world is created to experience the fairy tale three-dimensionally. One emphasis is on musical education, making the VR experience useful as a pedagogic tool for students of all ages.

In the serious game "Just me! Love, Romance, Sex and Being You" (Food for Thought, 40,000 euros), players assume the role of a young teen who visits her aunt in Berlin for Pride weekend. Once there, she encounters important topics such as finding one’s identity, dealing with one's own body and the diversity within society. The Food for Thought team is mainly comprised of female players of the Berlin gaming industry who develop computer games mainly dealing with LGBTQI+, gender, identity and sexuality.

The single-player horror game "Ad Infinitum" (Hekate, 80,000 euros) deals with a soldier returning from the front in World War I. He is haunted by scary visions and players have to help him cope with his trauma. Through the game, they explore his dark and dream-like world, which is marked by sites and events of war. The funding is used to create a prototype, the game will later be released for PC and console.

=> All funding results can be viewed here.

Upcoming submission dates

Serial formats and innovative audiovisual content: 19 November 2019