Hollywood
Over 115 projects backed by Germany-based World Cinema Fund in 10 years
NEW DELHI: The World Cinema Fund (WCF) based in Germany, which is marking its 10th year this year, has backed a total of 119 projects from 41 countries: granted production funds 84 times and given distribution funds to 35 films for release in German cinemas.
In 2015, the WCF will expand its funding programme to include a special project: WCF Europe.
“The World Cinema Fund is a success story: over the years it has grown and extended its reach. And for the time being, the Federal Cultural Foundation has secured its financing of the World Cinema Fund until 2018. The terms are good and will allow us to continue our work successfully,” said German Federal Cultural Foundation artistic director Hortensia Volckers.
Alongside its funding activities, the WCF annually organises a “WCF Day” during the Berlinale. In panel discussions, film cultures and infrastructures in individual countries or regions are debated. Moreover, since 2007, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, there have been “Spotlights” with WCF-funded films and workshops in the funding regions.
In 2015 and 2016, WCF Europe will supplement the existing programme of the World Cinema Fund and back further co-productions between European producers, and directors and producers from WCF regions and countries. Applications may be submitted by European producers from MEDIA sub-programme countries and production firms in WCF Europe regions, as well as in the Ukraine, Belarus and Moldavia, that can document they have already collaborated with a European partner.
Distribution funds will be granted to films that are being released jointly by three distributors: at least one must be from Europe and one from a WCF region or country. Funding for the coming two years will total 300,000 euros.
“The WCF’s success is proof of its topicality, and commitment to world cinema and cultural diversity. We thank Hortensia Völckers and the Federal Cultural Foundation for backing us all these years. I would also like to welcome the German Federal Foreign Office on board as another important partner. Funds from the Foreign Office allow us to pursue the goal of contributing internationally to partner-based cooperation’s and co-productions. Many thanks to the Foreign Office for this,” commented Berlinale director Berlinale Dieter Kosslick.
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.
