It’s all quiet on the Berlin deals front as the sales agencies wind down their operations at the European Film Market. By Monday, many offices and stands were almost completely deserted. Deals are being reported but it’s more of a “steady flow” than a gush. That said, most sales agents remain happy that the EFM continues to be an “efficient” place to do business.
AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford tells Variety, “Overseas business has been very solid. International buyers are taking their time, but we’ve been seeing a steady flow of deals closing and fully expect that trend to continue apace, particularly on Bill Condon’s ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ and Noah Hawley’s ‘Nowhere Fast.’”
Oliver Berben, head of German production and distribution powerhouse Constantin Film, comments, “The market at this year’s EFM is okay. It’s a bit quieter than other recent markets that we’ve seen, like Toronto or Cannes. There are a lot of movies still there. Not too many top-notch projects that a bunch of people are jumping on, but there are a few.”
Apart from buzz around Natalie Portman-Lena Dunham rom-com “Good Sex” and some other higher-profile projects, and deals on starry films like Jodie Foster movie “Vie Privée” and genre fare like horror thriller “Dangerous Animals,” it’s not been a particularly heated market. However, Berlin kicked off with some hot packages on offer (see our buzz titles here), so no doubt we’ll be reporting deals on these films soon.
In terms of non-English language titles, sales companies have reported multiple territory sales at Berlin, such as on Alejandro Amenábar’s historical epic “The Captive,” repped by Film Constellation, and some Sundance films, such as “DJ Ahmet,” which is repped by Films Boutique, continue to clock up sales.
Fabien Westerhoff, CEO of Film Constellation, says they had “a very positive EFM,” adding, “No doubt the market will stretch over the next days and weeks.” He has seen continued traction on horror thriller “Fear Is the Rider” and animation “The Growcodile,” as well as first offers for Plan B’s “Olmo” by Fernando Eimbcke, which is in Berlinale’s Panorama.
Genre films are popular, especially if they fall into the “elevated” bracket, as buyers seek out the next “The Substance,” and Asian buyers, in particular, are looking for genre films. Horror is especially hot, and Embankment Films, for one, came to Berlin with the first horror film on its slate for many years – “Molepeople,” starring Anthony Ramos and Ben Mendelsohn. However, Hugo Grumbar, partner at Embankment Films, warns that the market may be becoming oversaturated with horror films. He adds that rom-coms are increasingly popular. He has one of those on his slate too, “Sunny Dancer,” which stars “The Last of Us” breakout Bella Ramsey.
Meanwhile, at the Berlin festival, good things are being reported about several films that have debuted in official selection so far, including “Late Shift,” with “The Teachers’ Lounge” star Leonie Benesch, and Jan-Ole Gerster’s thriller “Islands,” starring Sam Riley. Positive reviews may stimulate deals for those films, and sellers are also hinting at possible Cannes festival berths for their films, such as Fatih Akin’s “Amrum” with Diane Kruger and Matthias Schweighöfer, which is with Beta Cinema.
Looking more broadly at the market for independent films, streamers have become more selective as they focus on their originals and broadcasters in many territories are not acquiring that many films either. The theatrical market has recovered somewhat in the past year, but distributors are reportedly far more cautious and not in a rush to make deals in Berlin. Negotiations are in progress on many films and deals will emerge in the days and weeks to come.
Commenting on the state of the indie market, Berben says: “Just a few years ago everyone was sounding the death knell of independent cinema. I don’t think that’s true at the moment. It’s the opposite: indie cinema came back. It came back very strong, for various reasons. Due to the fact that the U.S. studios are re-evaluating their position, the market is growing. And this has been an opportunity for the creatives, as well as the mini-majors, to make movies again to fill the gap.
“The other positive factor is, if you look at Europe, the openness to doing co-productions between the various territories and countries inside Europe is so much bigger than it used to be.
“Take the U.K., for example. Doing a U.K.-German co-production used to be the most impossible thing ever. That’s totally not the case anymore, both on the business and on the creative side. And within the current financial stagnation, co-productions have become a crucial driver.”
In terms of U.S. buyers attending Berlin, Grumbar reports that he met with buyers from all the leading U.S. indie distributors, but Ford questions whether it was worth their while. “Plane-loads of acquisitions executives from L.A. flying over to usually lose out to streamers on the best finished films and simply to message ‘it’s a wait and see for us’ on pre-buys doesn’t feel like a great use of anyone’s Berlin time or budget,” he says.
There were reportedly more buyers from Asia, but that may have been because the Lunar New Year didn’t clash with the Berlinale as it usually does. That said, China, Japan and South Korea are tough markets to sell to for a variety of reasons, says Yuan Rothbauer-Sui, Picture Tree Intl.’s co-managing director. However, with Filmart on the horizon that may be a better place to take the temperature.
As the debate continues as to whether the independent sector needs three film markets, Toronto’s decision to up the ante by launching a full-on market of their own is causing many sales agent to scratch their heads. Toronto has been pitching the idea to sales agents and national umbrella organizations like Unifrance and German Films since AFM but most are unlikely to boost their activities in Toronto.
Toronto would like sales companies to sell projects and films that are not in the festival, but the consensus seems to be that there are so many films in the festival buyers won’t have time to pay attention to much else, plus the festival’s timing is too close to the summer vacation period so packages won’t be ready in time.
Berlin’s position in calendar is a definite boon, says David Garrett, CEO, Mister Smith Entertainment. “One of the principal benefits and functions of these markets is they act as a catalyst to get films up and running, because we’re always trying to put new projects together, and we and all the other sales companies will be badgering the producers, saying, ‘Look, if you are going into production in the second quarter you can’t wait until Cannes, because that’s too late to put the deals together and collateralize the deals. We have to sell this in Berlin.’ So, it galvanizes them into locking down that last bit of casting, basically just green-lighting the film, and makes them decide to agree to let you take it to market.”
Garrett is happy with having three markets – Berlin, Cannes and AFM. “I don’t feel like I need another one. I don’t need a market at Toronto,” he says. “It’s too soon after Cannes because you’ve got the summer holidays. You need more time to put projects together.”
John Hopewell and Nick Vivarelli contributed to this report.
