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Toronto -- The Berlin award-winning teen dramedy "My Suicide" from U.S. director David Lee Miller is to unspool at the upcoming Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival For Children, organizers said Tuesday.

The Gabriel Sunday-starring film about a high school teen making a video project about his own suicide recently won the best feature film prize in Berlin's youth film section Generation 14plus (Hr, Feb. 13).

Sprockets also booked Neil Diamond's "Reel Injun," a Canadian documentary about inaccurate portrayals of native peoples in Hollywood films.

But elsewhere, there's an international flavor to Sprockets' 13th edition, with 27 features and 41 shorts from 23 countries and in 20 languages on offer.

As in past years, the Toronto event aligned with the Toronto International Film Festival will look to widen young film tastes beyond Pixar and Disney by featuring mostly European films in its features sidebar, including Norwegian director Asleik Engmark's "Twigson," "The Indian" from Dutch director Ineke Houtman,...

Cologne, Germany -- Uschi Reich and her production shingle Bavaria Filmverleih have picked up rights to author Isabel Abedi's best-selling "Lola" books with an eye to turning them into a kids film franchise.

Described as a "German Hannah Montana," the novels follow nine-year-old Lola, who dreams of becoming a singer, a spy and a wedding planner while struggling to manage her everyday life.

Reich will adapt the first novel in the series, "Here Comes Lola," for Bavaria together with German mini-major Constantin Film, which will distribute the film locally.

Reich has proven to have a golden touch when it comes to children's book adaptations. She has produced a string of youth hits for the German market including the franchises "Bibi Blocksberg" and "The Wild Chicks."

Franziska Buch, who collaborated with Reich on "Bibi Blocksberg," will direct "Here Comes Lola" from a script by Vanessa Walder.

CANNES -- German production house Odeon Film announced Tuesday that it will acquire the Cologne-based producer enigma on Oct. 13 for an undisclosed sum. Odeon, which has produced such hit German children's films as The Wild Chicks and Bibi Blocksberg as well as international features including Buffalo Soldiers and Mortel Transfert, is also Germany's leading producer of crime and detective series for TV, with hit shows including Wolff's Turf and SK Koelsch.

BERLIN -- German film fund GFP has taken majority control of Munich-based producer Odeon Film, the shingle that produced hit German children's movies Wild Chicks and Bibi Blocksberg as well as co-producing international fare including Buffalo Soldiers and Mortel Transfert. GFP acquired Odeon from parent Bavaria Film for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced Thursday . In addition to its film work, Odeon is a leading producer of German television drama. "Odeon Film is an established, debt-free company with a high cash-flow," said GFP managing director David Groenewold, explaining the reasons for the deal. "In addition, with Odeon we are also buying a strong brand with years of experience and success." GFP is one of Germany's leading private investment film funds but one of The Only Ones to specialize in local-language productions. Recent GFP-backed films include Berlin Film Festival entries The Elementary Particles and The Red Cockatoo.

COLOGNE -- German federal film subsidies board FFA will back sequels to two of the biggest German-language hits in recent years -- the coming-of-age comedy Girls on Top and the children's fantasy film Bibi Blocksberg. The FFA announced Wednesday it has approved an €800,000 ($940,537) grant for Bibi Blocksberg 2, which Bavaria Film is producing with Franziska Buch (Emil and the Detective) attached to direct. The feature, based on the best-selling children's books from German author Theo Schwartz, follows the adventures of Bibi, the youngest in a long line of witches who fight the forces of evil. The first Bibi installment, from director Hermine Huntgeburth, was one of the top-earning German films of 2002, taking in €9.9 million locally.