European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market to Go Digital

The Berlinale 2022 Festival is moving forward with an in-person event, focused on reduced-capacity cinema screenings, while European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and World Cinema Fund go digital this year.

The Berlinale Festival will center around films presented to the public and accredited audiences at premieres in the various Berlinale cinemas. Seating capacity in the Berlinale cinemas will be reduced to 50 percent. No parties or receptions will be held, but for film teams, there will still be a chance to appear in a reduced format on the red carpet at the Berlinale Palast or at other premiere cinemas.

There are greater obstacles to organizing the European Film Market in the Gropius Bau as well as other meeting-driven, face-to-face events, the organization said. The European Film Market (February 10 to 17) will take place digitally, and the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12-16), Berlinale Talents (February 12-17) and World Cinema Fund-Day will also be conducted online.

The digital EFM event will feature exhibitor presentations at virtual booths, digital market screenings, the “Berlinale Series Market,” networking formats and the conference program “EFM Industry Sessions” (the theme of which is “Shaping Change”).

The Berlinale Co-Production Market will be holding meetings, talks and networking events online. “We very much regret not being able to meet each other in person. But our positive experience from last year makes us confident that we can run a successful online version,” said Berlinale Co-Production Market Director Martina Bleis.

“The decision to realize the EFM 2022 as a purely digital event was an extremely difficult one to make,” said EFM Director Dennis Ruh. “The great need for the sales industry to meet physically had been reflected in the considerable number of bookings for exhibition spaces, accreditation and physical market screenings. However, the high frequency of face-to-face encounters in regular market trading is not feasible at the moment. So, we are relying on our digital offers, which already proved their worth for the trade-fair business ‘on remote’ last year.”