A new floor at the Marriott Hotel (the exhibition spaces at the Martin Gropius Bau were already fully booked by the end of December) and an extra theater for screenings at the Cinema Cubix: the European Film Market, the market of the Berlinale, returns in force from 7th – 15th February.
By the end of January the number of participating companies was up by almost 50 compared to last year (from 403 to 455), the same cannot be said for the number of participants which is yet below that of the last edition (from 7920 to 7335). There is also a slight drop in buyers (from 1739 to 1550), according to the data available on January 30th: provisional figures that are destined to increase.
Beki Probst is convinced of this: “These are provisional figures that will definitely change a lot over the next two weeks”, the director of the market assures us.
“There is a lot of movement, the movies at the market have increased, so much so that we have taken on another theater at the Cubix, so now there are five: three totally dedicated to screenings and two that we share with other sections of the festival. We are still working on the list of buyers. Every year we invite a certain number of them from all over the world – 140 this year. At the end of the market we do some follow-up to assess the type of business they carried out, whether they bought anything or not, and the following year we update the list based on that information. In this way, bit by bit, everyone gets the chance to be invited”.
A lot of attention is paid to “market moods”. Probst continues: “In addition to the questionnaire we send to buyers at the end of the festival, we also send a very elaborate McKinsey questionnaire to all members of the trade.
Reading these we discovered, for example, that many newcomers had problems finding their way around the market and the festival. So this year we have organized “Shortcuts for First-Timers”, an informative “instruction” session which will be held at the Gropius Mirror, the EFM restaurant, on the first day of the market, with market representatives and representatives from other sections of the Festival.”
“Industry Talks” (realized in collaboration with Film- and Medien- stiftung NRW) returns for the second consecutive year: on February 11th, international sector professionals will discuss successful video on demand formulas, paying particular attention to medium-small distributors and arthouse cinema (“Arthouse on Demand”), and the increasingly theatrical quality of TV series. This second panel (“TV Series – The New Cinema?”) will feature Jane Campion who, after Sundance, will be presenting the series “Top of the Lake” at the Berlinale, which she directed along with Garth Davis.
ITALIANS AT EFM/FILM COMMISSIONS PREVAIL
What kind of Italian participation will there be at the European Film Market? As usual, the Martin Gropius Bau will host the Italia Pavilion, organized by Istituto Luce Cinecittà, with the support of the ICE – Italian Trade Promotion Agency, which will handle the communication activities for promoting Italian movies in Berlin. The pavilion will host the Apulia Film Commission, the BLS Südtirol-Alto Adige, the Film Commission Torino Piemonte, the Italian Film Commissions Association, the Lombardia Film Commission, Minerva Pictures, the Roma Lazio Film Commission, the Sardegna Film Commission, the Toscana Film Commission, the Trentino Film Commission and Variety Communications. Adriana Chiesa Enterprises/ACEK, Intramovies and Rai Trade will have an individual stand. Under the MEDIA umbrella there will be Ellipsis Media International, the Genova-Liguria Film Commission, Luna Film Productions, Nomad Film Distribution, P.F.A. FILMS, and the Zelig School for Documentary, Television and New Media.
