BERLIN (December 15, 2022) – Two months before the start of the renewed in-person edition of the European Film Market (EFM) at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, the organisers are already registering strong demand. The exhibition spaces in the Gropius Bau and Marriott Hotel are almost already fully booked. From February 16 to 22, 2023, around 11,500 participants, right holders, producers, buyers, festival programmers and investors are expected to attend the seven market days. As an international trading platform for high-quality audiovisual content, an indispensable meeting place for the film and media industry, as well as offering impetus for innovation and change and a discussion forum, the EFM is one of the most important film and content markets worldwide.
Centralisation at Potsdamer Platz
In 2023, the market activities will be concentrated exclusively around Potsdamer Platz: for the first time, the conference programme of the EFM Industry Sessions will take place in the cooperating Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Stresemannstraße, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Gropius Bau. This is also where a new EFM meeting place, Café Connect, will be created. Furthermore, in addition to the familiar venues, CinemaxX in particular will be used increasingly for market screenings. Market screenings at decentralised locations will no longer take place, and the “Berlinale Series Market” will also be moving from Zoo Palast to Potsdamer Platz.
“The centralisation of the market around Potsdamer Platz means that our curated networking opportunities and specifically-tailored focuses on individual genres and themes will help us to meet the needs of the industry and create an efficient market infrastructure bringing participants together, creating sustainable links, and also inspiring and challenging them to reflect. The great demand from our long-term but also from new exhibitors, the excellent current accreditation status and the resulting trust in the EFM motivate us to achieve our goal,” says EFM Director Dennis Ruh.
For the first time, there will be a Caribbean umbrella stand at the EFM, realised in cooperation with the Unesco Transcultura programme, which aims to connect the Caribbean and European Union through culture and creativity. In addition, the EFM welcomes companies from or working with the African continent at the African umbrella stand. South Africa will be represented with its own umbrella stand.
Conference and Networking Programmes
The EFM Industry Sessions, which focus on current topics in the film industry and provide fresh input, will be held this year under the heading “Shift happens”. This umbrella title refers with an ironic wink to the complex and far-reaching upheaval in the industry. International experts will discuss what it means to enter new territory, to make mistakes, to profit from such experiences, practise resilience, and develop new business models.
The new EFM Connects section brings together all the offers with which the EFM actively establishes contacts between its participants. It enables targeted, sustainable networking and, with the new format EFM Connects: Lunches, offers exhibitors and partners the opportunity to generate carefully selected, individual industry contacts in a relaxed atmosphere over a three-course lunch.
Focus Periods
In order to make it easier for visitors to plan their participation, for the first time, the European Film Market will designate special offers tailored to individual market participants in the form of focus periods, which will be bundled in their location and timing. At EFM Connects, events for producers will be concentrated primarily in the first half of the market from Friday to Sunday (February 17-19). The offers for the series industry are concentrated in the Berlinale Series Market from Monday to Wednesday (February 20-22). The programme for documentary filmmakers is focused around the Documentary Day on Tuesday (February 21). The Archive Market will also take place on this day; here, the most important film archives in the world will present their holdings and expertise. The market then closes on Wednesday, February 22, with Queer Wednesday, dedicated to the distribution and programming of LGBTQIA2S+ content.
A new tool for producers is the so-called Producers & Project Pages. Producers will be able to create their own profile within the EFM online platform and present their projects at whatever stage of development. This offer, which is free of charge in the first year for all participants accredited as producers at the EFM, aims primarily to promote networking among industry representatives and so enable active involvement in shaping the market’s infrastructure.
Baltic States as “Countries in Focus”
In 2023, the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will present themselves as “Countries in Focus” at the European Film Market. The programme offers numerous opportunities to network with producers, distributors, investors and creatives from the focus countries and to get to know productions from the Baltic countries in various EFM sections. Together with the European Film Market, the Baltic countries will also host the EFM reception, which will take place for the first time on the second day of the market (Friday, February 17).
Individual programme highlights and special formats will be announced in January.
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