Hollywood
Two funding agencies to jointly promote children’s cinema at BIFF
NEW DELHI: The Netherlands Film Fund and the MDM, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH, have established a co-development fund to jointly support script development for original children’s film projects.
Children’s films have always played a major role within the policy of both funds. By joining forces the funds aim to develop and coproduce high quality stories for children that will find their audience in both countries and beyond.
MDM director Manfred Schmidt and Netherlands Film Fund CEO Doreen Boonekamp launched the initiative at the Berlinale co-production market at the International Film Festival Berlin. The initiative reinforces the recently signed coproduction treaty between Germany and the Netherlands in order to enhance the collaboration and coproduction between the two countries.
Proposals for original, live action feature films for children in the age groups 4-6, 6-9 and 9-12 years old are eligible. The film projects should be about contemporary matters and are to be told from the perspective of children. There are no limitations regarding style or genre.
Priority will be given to projects that already have a co-producer or co-writer attached from Germany or the Netherlands. Applications should originate from the Netherlands or from the region of Mitteldeutschland (Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thueringen).
The initial budget of the fund amounts up to € 100,000, each party contributing € 50,000. Projects will be selected by a selection committee existing of the CEOs of both funds or their representatives. The first application date for the new fund is 14 April 2015.
In the past years several German Dutch children’s films were developed and produced like Supernova (2013, script writer, director Tamar van den Dop, production: Revolver Amsterdam (NL) in co-production with IJswater Films (NL) Coin Film (DE) and Epidemic (BE), Tony Ten (2012, script writer Mieke de Jong, director Mischa Kamp, production Lemming Film (NL), in co-production with Heino Deckert Ma.ja.de. (DE) and Lepel (2004, script writer Mieke de Jong, director Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen, production Lemming Film (NL), in co-production with: Egoli Tossel Films (DE).
Hollywood
Remembering Chuck Norris: the man, the myth, the legend at 86
From martial arts legend to internet folklore, fans honour his final level up
KAUAI: The world lost a legend on 19 March 2026, when Chuck Norris died aged 86. For a man long treated as immortal in internet folklore, the news felt almost unreal. Yet in true Norris fashion, the farewell has been less about mourning and more about myth-making.
Just days before his passing, on his 86th birthday, Norris shared a video from Kauaʻi, Hawaii, showing him sparring under the sun. His caption was characteristically wry: “I don’t age. I level up.” It now reads like a final wink to fans who had spent years elevating him to near-superhuman status.
His death followed a sudden medical emergency while on holiday. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, who described him not just as a global symbol of strength, but as a devoted husband, father and grandfather.
Online, grief quickly gave way to tribute in the language Norris helped popularise. Social media filled with one last wave of “Chuck Norris Facts”, the tongue-in-cheek myths that turned him into a digital demigod. The jokes wrote themselves, as always. Death did not take Norris, it finally dared to meet him.
Behind the humour, however, lies a formidable real-world legacy.
Long before the memes, Norris was Carlos Ray Norris, a decorated martial artist. After serving in the US Air Force, he rose to become a six-time world professional middleweight karate champion. His on-screen duel with Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon remains one of cinema’s most iconic fight sequences.
Through the 1980s, he became the face of action cinema with films such as Missing in Action and The Delta Force, embodying a stoic, no-nonsense hero. In the 1990s, he reached living rooms worldwide as Cordell Walker in Walker, Texas Ranger, blending Western grit with martial arts flair.
Off-screen, his work carried equal weight. His foundation, Kickstart Kids, continues to teach martial arts to at-risk youth, focusing on discipline and self-worth. He also founded Chun Kuk Do, a martial arts system that trained thousands.
What made Norris unique was not just his strength, but his willingness to laugh at it. When the internet transformed him into an exaggerated symbol of invincibility, he embraced the joke. In doing so, he bridged generations, from cinema-goers to meme-makers.
His passing marks more than the loss of an action star. It signals the fading of a rare cultural crossover, where genuine athletic prowess met Hollywood heroism and early internet humour.
For many, remembering Chuck Norris means recalling a time when heroes were simple, punches were decisive and the internet still felt like a playground of shared jokes.
And if the myths are to be believed, this is not quite the end. It is simply Chuck Norris moving on to his next level.
