Berlin International Film Festival
Business clash
Feb 7, 2006
BERLIN -- About midway through last year's Berlin International Film Festival, it was business as usual: A black-clad art house crowd milled about the swank lobby of the Grand Hyatt, lattes in hand, discussing the mise-en-scene orWeltanschauung of whatever "important" European art film had just premiered. Suddenly, the staid atmosphere was pierced by a voice, bullhorned and booming: "Support real independent film! Support Troma!" Startled onlookers turned to watch as a pack of blood-spattered, green-haired punks -- half of them sporting plastic or papier-mache accessories that included dangling eyeballs and oozing brain matter -- stomped through the hotel.
It lasted maybe two minutes, but the "mutants" had delivered a very clear -- and, for some, very troubling -- message: Berlin would never be the same. When the makers of "The Toxic Avenger" movies feel that they have to put in an appearance at Germany's biggest and most-respected film festival, then it is apparent that "the business" -- from the big boys to the bottom-feeders -- has arrived.
Mutants notwithstanding, festival veterans already were feeling the effects of a more deal-oriented environment last year. "Berlin used to be about taking a few meetings over coffee at the Hyatt and then going to a screening -- it was very relaxed, very easygoing," says David Glasser, president of international operations at Yari Film Group. "Last year, I had my standard (Festival de) Cannes-style 10-12 meetings a day, and it'll be even more this time around."
Glasser is referring to the fact that MIFED's demise and the American Film Market's 2004 shift from February to November have left a big slot open on the industry's calendar -- one that organizers of Berlin's European Film Market are more than happy to fill.
To that end, the EFM has moved from the cramped Debis building on Potsdamer Platz to the more-spacious Martin-Gropius-Bau, a five- to 10-minute walk from the Berlinale Palast. (The new location quickly sold out, though, and the market also was forced to rent the fifth floor of the B1 building on Potsdamer Platz, where the festival's Panorama and Kinderfilmfest sections have offices and where 37 companies will now have stands.)
Al Munteanu of German rights group SquareOne Entertainment already has seen signs that the Berlinale and EFM have become the third big international film festival/market combination, alongside Cannes and the AFM.
"All the big American and Asian companies are coming," he says. "At the AFM (this past November), I had the feeling that people were holding back their ammo -- waiting till they had more footage or whatever -- to give their full blow in Berlin."
Adds Kirk D'Amico, president and CEO of Myriad Pictures, which is set to screen the John Irvin-helmed Alfred Molina starrer "The Moon and the Stars" at this year's EFM: "It is all timing. Because there is no spring AFM, Berlin is now perfectly situated midway between AFM and Cannes."
If numbers are an indication, then that good timing is helping to ensure that 2006 will be the biggest Berlin to date: An impressive 250 companies are slated to set up shop at the EFM (a 45% jump from last year's record tally), a record 4,000 journalists are set to cover the 10-day movie marathon, and ticket sales to Berliners are expected to top the 2005 record of 150,000.
"It's the record-breaking Berlinale: more companies, more films, more critics, more everything," festival director Dieter Kosslick says with a laugh. "What more could you want?"
Berlin's unique selling point is that it can offer the best of all worlds: Unlike the Venice International Film Festival, it boasts a genuine professional market, and unlike Cannes, movies are screened for paying audiences, not just cynical packs of journalists, distributors and critics. In addition, unlike the AFM, the EFM is backed by a major festival that draws print, radio and television journalists from around the globe.
"The thing that really sets us apart is the close cooperation between the festival and the market," EFM director Beki Probst says. "Thirty% to 40% of the films screening at the market are also appearing in the festival in one of the official sections. This type of teamwork is what everyone else is trying to achieve, and this is what we've always had."
Adds D'Amico, "Hopefully, Berlin will become the February version of Cannes, where the films, the media and the talent all come together -- where you can sell a film, do promotion on it and screen it in front of an audience, all on the same spot."
Not everyone is so optimistic about Berlin's transformation into a one-stop-shopping event for specialty houses and the straight-to-video crowd. Concerns about high costs, a lack of organization and unrealistic expectations have become increasingly common during the run-up each year.
"This is going to be more expensive for us than last year -- a lot more -- and I don't know if the business can justify it," one veteran German sales agent says. "If Berlin is going to cost as much as AFM or Cannes, then you have to do the same amount of business, too. Frankly, I don't see it, (but) the proof will be in the bottom line."
Probst counters that this will be a "test year," and she is asking attendees to "be indulgent this time around. At the end of the day, it will be about, 'What kind of business did I do?' You can be sure that if people sell their films, they will love the market; if they don't, they won't like it as much."
With a weak dollar translating into higher hotel bills and pricier lattes in the Grand Hyatt lobby, the strength of the euro also will be an issue for American executives traveling to Berlin.
"It is costly, and boxoffice has slipped in Europe lately -- especially in Germany -- so that is going to have an effect as well," says Mark Lindsay, head of Kimmel International, whose EFM slate includes David Hickson's award-winning South African drama "Beat the Drum." "It is still too early to tell if Berlin will work as a market or not -- maybe it is too close to Cannes. In the end, it will be supply and demand."
Another potential source of tension is conflict between the commercial demands of industry players and the festival's desire to exert its independence. Berlin's 2006 competition lineup strikes a careful balance between European and Asian art house fare and includes "Slumming," from Austrian director Michael Glawogger; Hollywood pictures such as Sony Pictures Classics' "Capote" and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Syriana"; and independent films with mainstream aspirations, including Marc Evans' opening-night offering "Snow Cake" and Chen Kaige's "The Promise."
In James McTeigue's upcoming Warners actioner "V for Vendetta," Berlin also boasts a potential blockbuster with a red-carpet-friendly star -- Natalie Portman -- to satisfy the German tabloids. But with competition titles including "En Soap," a transsexual tragicomedy from first-time director Pernille Fischer Christensen, and Jasmila Zbanic's "Grbavica," which centers on a rape victim in war-torn Bosnia, the festival can hardly be accused of selling out.
"Berlin has always had the tradition of giving little-known or first-time directors an opportunity in competition with the more-established directors, and that is something we want to hold on to," Kosslick says.
That might be true, but festival purists fear that an increased emphasis on becoming a world-class market eventually will tip Kosslick's balancing act in the wrong direction.
"Kosslick has done a good job this year of pleasing the critics and still having enough star-driven films to keep the media and the industry happy," one German distributor says. "But as the market gets stronger, he is going to come under more pressure to show more commercial films and fewer straight art house (films)."
Glasser wonders if the line between Berlin's market and festival will become so blurred that there will cease to be a difference.
"What if you have a film like (Miramax's 2005 Bruce Willis starrer) 'Hostage'?" he asks. "Does that go into the festival lineup? How close does the link become between market and festival?"
Critics and Berlin's notoriously vocal film fans ultimately will decide whether the festival portion of the 2006 Berlinale is a success. For the EFM, the reckoning will come when companies return home and tally sales.
"This year is an experiment; we'll see if this makes sense for us financially," D'Amico says. "But if it works, we might be seeing the beginning of a four-market system developing, with two big markets -- Cannes and AFM -- and two small markets being Berlin and Toronto. That might not be the most economical way of doing business, but what are you going to do?"
That is a question no one can answer adequately at the moment.
It lasted maybe two minutes, but the "mutants" had delivered a very clear -- and, for some, very troubling -- message: Berlin would never be the same. When the makers of "The Toxic Avenger" movies feel that they have to put in an appearance at Germany's biggest and most-respected film festival, then it is apparent that "the business" -- from the big boys to the bottom-feeders -- has arrived.
Mutants notwithstanding, festival veterans already were feeling the effects of a more deal-oriented environment last year. "Berlin used to be about taking a few meetings over coffee at the Hyatt and then going to a screening -- it was very relaxed, very easygoing," says David Glasser, president of international operations at Yari Film Group. "Last year, I had my standard (Festival de) Cannes-style 10-12 meetings a day, and it'll be even more this time around."
Glasser is referring to the fact that MIFED's demise and the American Film Market's 2004 shift from February to November have left a big slot open on the industry's calendar -- one that organizers of Berlin's European Film Market are more than happy to fill.
To that end, the EFM has moved from the cramped Debis building on Potsdamer Platz to the more-spacious Martin-Gropius-Bau, a five- to 10-minute walk from the Berlinale Palast. (The new location quickly sold out, though, and the market also was forced to rent the fifth floor of the B1 building on Potsdamer Platz, where the festival's Panorama and Kinderfilmfest sections have offices and where 37 companies will now have stands.)
Al Munteanu of German rights group SquareOne Entertainment already has seen signs that the Berlinale and EFM have become the third big international film festival/market combination, alongside Cannes and the AFM.
"All the big American and Asian companies are coming," he says. "At the AFM (this past November), I had the feeling that people were holding back their ammo -- waiting till they had more footage or whatever -- to give their full blow in Berlin."
Adds Kirk D'Amico, president and CEO of Myriad Pictures, which is set to screen the John Irvin-helmed Alfred Molina starrer "The Moon and the Stars" at this year's EFM: "It is all timing. Because there is no spring AFM, Berlin is now perfectly situated midway between AFM and Cannes."
If numbers are an indication, then that good timing is helping to ensure that 2006 will be the biggest Berlin to date: An impressive 250 companies are slated to set up shop at the EFM (a 45% jump from last year's record tally), a record 4,000 journalists are set to cover the 10-day movie marathon, and ticket sales to Berliners are expected to top the 2005 record of 150,000.
"It's the record-breaking Berlinale: more companies, more films, more critics, more everything," festival director Dieter Kosslick says with a laugh. "What more could you want?"
Berlin's unique selling point is that it can offer the best of all worlds: Unlike the Venice International Film Festival, it boasts a genuine professional market, and unlike Cannes, movies are screened for paying audiences, not just cynical packs of journalists, distributors and critics. In addition, unlike the AFM, the EFM is backed by a major festival that draws print, radio and television journalists from around the globe.
"The thing that really sets us apart is the close cooperation between the festival and the market," EFM director Beki Probst says. "Thirty% to 40% of the films screening at the market are also appearing in the festival in one of the official sections. This type of teamwork is what everyone else is trying to achieve, and this is what we've always had."
Adds D'Amico, "Hopefully, Berlin will become the February version of Cannes, where the films, the media and the talent all come together -- where you can sell a film, do promotion on it and screen it in front of an audience, all on the same spot."
Not everyone is so optimistic about Berlin's transformation into a one-stop-shopping event for specialty houses and the straight-to-video crowd. Concerns about high costs, a lack of organization and unrealistic expectations have become increasingly common during the run-up each year.
"This is going to be more expensive for us than last year -- a lot more -- and I don't know if the business can justify it," one veteran German sales agent says. "If Berlin is going to cost as much as AFM or Cannes, then you have to do the same amount of business, too. Frankly, I don't see it, (but) the proof will be in the bottom line."
Probst counters that this will be a "test year," and she is asking attendees to "be indulgent this time around. At the end of the day, it will be about, 'What kind of business did I do?' You can be sure that if people sell their films, they will love the market; if they don't, they won't like it as much."
With a weak dollar translating into higher hotel bills and pricier lattes in the Grand Hyatt lobby, the strength of the euro also will be an issue for American executives traveling to Berlin.
"It is costly, and boxoffice has slipped in Europe lately -- especially in Germany -- so that is going to have an effect as well," says Mark Lindsay, head of Kimmel International, whose EFM slate includes David Hickson's award-winning South African drama "Beat the Drum." "It is still too early to tell if Berlin will work as a market or not -- maybe it is too close to Cannes. In the end, it will be supply and demand."
Another potential source of tension is conflict between the commercial demands of industry players and the festival's desire to exert its independence. Berlin's 2006 competition lineup strikes a careful balance between European and Asian art house fare and includes "Slumming," from Austrian director Michael Glawogger; Hollywood pictures such as Sony Pictures Classics' "Capote" and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Syriana"; and independent films with mainstream aspirations, including Marc Evans' opening-night offering "Snow Cake" and Chen Kaige's "The Promise."
In James McTeigue's upcoming Warners actioner "V for Vendetta," Berlin also boasts a potential blockbuster with a red-carpet-friendly star -- Natalie Portman -- to satisfy the German tabloids. But with competition titles including "En Soap," a transsexual tragicomedy from first-time director Pernille Fischer Christensen, and Jasmila Zbanic's "Grbavica," which centers on a rape victim in war-torn Bosnia, the festival can hardly be accused of selling out.
"Berlin has always had the tradition of giving little-known or first-time directors an opportunity in competition with the more-established directors, and that is something we want to hold on to," Kosslick says.
That might be true, but festival purists fear that an increased emphasis on becoming a world-class market eventually will tip Kosslick's balancing act in the wrong direction.
"Kosslick has done a good job this year of pleasing the critics and still having enough star-driven films to keep the media and the industry happy," one German distributor says. "But as the market gets stronger, he is going to come under more pressure to show more commercial films and fewer straight art house (films)."
Glasser wonders if the line between Berlin's market and festival will become so blurred that there will cease to be a difference.
"What if you have a film like (Miramax's 2005 Bruce Willis starrer) 'Hostage'?" he asks. "Does that go into the festival lineup? How close does the link become between market and festival?"
Critics and Berlin's notoriously vocal film fans ultimately will decide whether the festival portion of the 2006 Berlinale is a success. For the EFM, the reckoning will come when companies return home and tally sales.
"This year is an experiment; we'll see if this makes sense for us financially," D'Amico says. "But if it works, we might be seeing the beginning of a four-market system developing, with two big markets -- Cannes and AFM -- and two small markets being Berlin and Toronto. That might not be the most economical way of doing business, but what are you going to do?"
That is a question no one can answer adequately at the moment.
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