European Film Market Chief on How the Event Has Evolved

Tanja Meissner, director of Berlinale Pro, a role that includes management of the European Film Market, points to a number of highlights in this year’s event, which wraps Wednesday.

First, is the Animation Days initiative, which was introduced this year. “We wanted to support the independent animation industry, since it’s a difficult context for them. Animation is a genre in which Europe really truly excels, and Germany is a very strong exporter of animation fare,” she says.

“The export numbers are really high for family entertainment, which you don’t see in festivals, but it’s a very dynamic industry with a high-end expertise and world-class production facilities. And we have a lot of sales companies in the market who sell independent animation, and we want to support them by giving this a broader appeal, and I think animation needs to be highlighted in this difficult context, in a market like ours.”

Referring to difficulties in the market for animation, she adds, “A lot of the platforms don’t commission animation anymore, and that’s really weird, because children determine the choices that people make when they subscribe to platforms. There is less public [funding] support for animation, and we have a lot of policymakers who attend the market, so by highlighting animation in this context is our way to try to give it a bigger stage, and really support it by putting it in a bigger context.”

The second thing that EFM is focusing on is genre filmmaking, she says. “Genre movies have much more broad recognition. They are getting more critical acclaim, and they have more prestige in festivals like Berlinale than before, and our industry invests differently in that now. Genre projects are increasingly being positioned as prestige cinema rather than B movies, and they attract top talent, and they attract bigger budgets, and many filmmakers are blending horror and sci-fi with drama and with art-house sensibilities. And I love that.

“And now we are working with Frontières festival, which has created this work-in-progress showcase for us because I wanted to give them the credit for what they are doing. Frontières is such a strong brand, and what they have achieved I really think is worth recognizing. It’s great what they do and the way they build this brand. So, this is something I didn’t want to reinvent from scratch when they do it already very well. So we collaborate here with them.”

A third focus is on gaming and XR. “The idea here is to connect new, different players to the traditional ones that come to our market, to renew creative energies and everything that could also be a potential growth driver in terms of business for the traditional film industry. Everything we do at EFM is really about creating new business opportunities. It’s not about expanding, it’s about really complementing something that could be interesting to the traditional linear content development, or content economy. So that’s what EFM Beyond is about.

“Beyond is a term that evokes everything that goes maybe beyond the common ground that is very familiar to us, but it could be a potential growth driver and creating the space for new groups of people, for bringing new players with different equity, with different funding, that can add value, I think, to what we do and can create additional revenue streams for independent IP from neighboring creative industries.”

She adds, “We take a close look at monetizing strategies to unlock traditional IP in transmedia formats, from film to gaming. We have one session, for example, where there’s 10 game developers who pitch their projects that are suitable for adaptation into web series, into animation, into location-based entertainment, into traditional film and to XR, as we have all those in place to make this a viable business model. And I think integration of new participant groups is vital for a market like ours, also in terms of younger perspectives, in terms of different views on projects, of how storytelling reflects realities of younger people. And in this way, we want to deepen existing partnerships, but also initiate new collaboration.

“So this is where the games accelerator comes into place, where we have traditional producers who want to have strong IP, independent IP, who wish to acquire fundamental skills to adapt those IPs into complementary formats.

“What we need is an understanding that the film industry does not operate in a comfort zone. It’s a very dynamic environment, and markets are really evolving. And I can see that everywhere. I believe that it should be a mission for film markets to pick up on trends and on challenges. It’s not expanding for the sake of expanding, it’s really trying to see the needs of the independent sector to stay competitive and where we must invest in innovation.

“The MEDIA report pointed out that the growth, and not just in Europe, is increasingly driven by digital innovation and consumer-centric approaches, such as mobile engagement, and so we have invested in the Innovation Hub. I think it’s important for us to create a space to experiment with new forms of storytelling and to invest in an innovative mindset. Because not all the Europeans do. And, innovation is not just technology. It’s also about tackling new business opportunities and cultural relevance also. That’s what the creative industries are about. We evolve constantly.

“The good thing is that we build on very solid foundations. We are the service platform for rights trading, and it’s in the heart of the market, but maybe we have to be more than this. We have to do something else, and producers require, increasingly, skills that go far beyond traditional filmmaking. In order to stay competitive, they also need to have data literacy. They have to know about audience engagement. They have to have an IP strategy, like going away from the single IP development to a slate portfolio kind of development. They need to be savvy with AI tools and marketing and cross-sector collaboration.”

Another focal point is increasing networking opportunities for producers. Meissner says, “The biggest asset of every producer is the address book, and probably not just of the producer, but of everybody who works in the creative industry. So this is why we are constantly trying to increase the possibility of networking formats, because serendipity is very important in what we do to meet people and to get new business partnerships. And so we are investing a lot in driving that and finding innovative business strategies.

“And also we focus on cross-sector collaboration. We connect, for example, documentary film producers with animation studios in matchmaking sessions because they don’t necessarily know eachother, and when they go to only documentary film markets or only animation film events they won’t necessarily connect. So I believe what we can do here is spark new relationships. And Berlin is very compact, and very accessible also, because you can fly easily to Berlin, and you have this great setting that we have.”