Berlin’s EFM to Focus on Shaping Industry Change and Sustainable Development

variety.com:

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market is gearing up for its second virtual edition with an improved online infrastructure for exhibiting companies and a wide-ranging conference program that focuses on a transforming industry and the changes that are shaping its future.For Dennis Ruh, who took over as EFM director in 2020, it’s the second market that has been forced online due to the pandemic — a disappointing development after physical space at the Gropius Bau and Marriott Hotel, the event’s main venues, had been nearly completely booked.“The biggest challenge was to switch from a hybrid to an online event — to make this decision,” says Ruh.With Germany and much of Europe hit by the Omicron onslaught in December and January, a physical event was no longer feasible. “We had to make this decision by the beginning of January and that was not an easy one,” he says.

EFM organizers had a fallback plan in place and the online part of the festival, initially planned as a hybrid event, was already prepared, Ruh adds.

The market also fine tuned its rights management for online screenings to make them more convenient for rights holders while also making improvements to its online infrastructure and digital services.Nonetheless, the decision to go virtual for a second time was met with mixed reaction from the industry, Ruh notes. “Most of our exhibitors and participants understand the decision, but at the same time it’s different from last year when we had a lockdown in Germany and the festival didn’t take place at the same time as the market.”This year, the festival is taking place on site, with industry guests and filmmakers set to attend under strict safety measures.