Daniel Bruehl and Katrin Sass star in Good Bye, Lenin!

The Film Council is to give �565,000 to help promote six films including Japan's Spirited Away and the French/English language film Swimming Pool.

The money will aid marketing and increase the amount of prints available to cinemas.

Goodbye Lenin! is only seventh foreign film in 10 years to pass the �1m mark.

It was previously backed by Film Council cash, along with the New Zealand film Whale Rider, to increase the amount of prints and promote it to audiences outside the traditional West End art house screens.

Because of the cost of producing prints the average low-budget or foreign-language film has under 10 prints in nationwide circulation, compared with 1,000 of blockbusters such as Harry Potter.

'Almost impossible'

The six films to benefit from the latest hand-out include the low-budget Young Adam, from Scottish director David Mackenzie and starring Ewan McGregor, and Spanish coming-of-age flick Krampack.

The Film Council has given �70,000 to Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool, building on its nomination for the Palme d'Or prize at 2003 the Cannes Film Festival.

Pete Buckingham, head of the UK Film Council's Distribution and Exhibition Fund, said: "I am delighted that Goodbye Lenin! has been such a big success in the UK, it proves that there is an undoubted appetite for subtitled films in this country.

"Because the cost of releasing specialised films is so high they often have a very limited release and it has been almost impossible to see them at cinemas outside London's West End.

"This National Lottery support for film distribution and exhibition will make a wider variety of films available to cinema-goers across the country."