It was all-online (again!) this year, but that didn’t stop business from getting done. Berlin’s European Film Market wrapped its second virtual European Film Market with a “record number of deals” signed during the 2022 event, according to EFM director Dennis Ruh, who pointed to Sony Pictures’ $60 million worldwide prebuy for Tom Hanks project A Man Called Otto with STX International and CAA Media Finance as the biggest-ever single deal signed in Berlin.
“But art house film and films from the Berlin Festival lineup also did well,” said Ruh in an email to THR. “Like the Chinese competition entry, Return to Dust, which sold to several theatrical distributors in Europe [M-Appeal is handling world sales on the film]. The sales business felt a breath of fresh air again in the wake of the easing and lifting of restrictive [COVID-19] measures in Europe and in the rest of the world.”
Related Stories
By the numbers, EFM 2022 saw growth everywhere, with 600 exhibitors from 62 countries presenting titles on the EFM platform, up from 504 companies from 60 nations last year. There were more titles on offer — 827 films compared to 821 last year — and more than 600 market premieres.
Despite this “virtual success,” Ruh believes there is still pent-up demand for in-person film markets. “We could see that in our reservations from December,” when the EFM was still planning an in-person event, he says. “Business is also about mutual trust, and you’re more likely to create that by spending time together in one place than through strictly scheduled online meetings. This remains a people’s business that needs a specific meeting place.”
It remains to be seen whether Berlin, Cannes and the American Film Market in Santa Monica will continue to be the spots where the global film industry gathers every year. While most executives complain about “Zoom fatigue” after two years of digital markets, they’ve also benefited financially from not having to book flights, hotel rooms and exhibition space.
“We really only need to go to two markets a year,” noted one prominent U.S. sales agent, “and the buyers are shifting, too: Asian buyers only want to come to Cannes and AFM, a lot of Europeans would like to just do Berlin and Cannes.”
Ruh, however, is confident the EFM “as the first film market of the year, with all the projects that are sold here, the high-quality of the lineup [and] the unique connection with the Berlinale as [the world’s largest] public festival,” will hold its position as a must-attend event for the indie industry.
As he notes, the number of “lucrative deals” at EFM 2022 is proof positive of the “benefit for most world sales companies” in making the trip to chilly Berlin.
