ID Mati Diop holds her Golden Bear Award on the red carpet
The Berlinale and European Film Market have wrapped their 2024 editions. As I stated before they are separate but overlapping events.
To date three films from Berlinale scored North American distribution deals
Panorama triple winner Sex was acquired by Strand Releasing
Martin Scorcese backed Documentary Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburgerd by Cohen Media Group
And most notably he 67 minute Golden Bear winner (and no it’s not just a gay hairy man spray painted gold) Dahomey was acquired by MUBI for several territories. It also marks back to back years that the top prize was won by a documentary and the third time this has happened in the last 10 years. On top of that it’s the fourth time in the last ten years that the top prize went to a female director. In this case Mati Diop. While Cannes continues to struggle with representation issues, Berlinale by comparison is leading the way.
In the Encounters sidebar the top prize also went to a documentary, the 216 minute Direct Action. It was also a special mention winner for Berlinale Best Documentary
Other multi-award winners include Generation entry Last Swim, Panorama Opening night title Crossing (MUBI will release in NA), Israeli/Palestinian Doc No Other Land which won both the Panorama Audience Award and the 40,000 Euro Berlinale Best Documentary award, Teddy (best LGBTQIA+) winners All Shall Be Well and Teaches of Peaches whcih were both third place for Panorama Audience Awards
Competition entries Dying and My Favorite Cake both won multiple awards though the latter was only recognized by independent juries and not the main competition jury. And Forum entry Shahid was also recognized twice. Several of these titles have sold to a wealth of international territories in the old school territory by territory piecemeal model.
Now despite reducing its lineup the 2024 Berlinale still showed roughly 140 features (not including retrospetive screenings). Of those 10 previously showed at A-List North American fests. One from TIFF, One from Telluride and eight from Sundance. When those films are removed from the equation only 17% of Berlinale premieres left with a Rotten Tomatoes score and that avg score is a lowly 77%. 40% of those films already have NA distribution and they split the bill of the critically hated (Black Tea and Treasure) and the adored (A24’s Architechton and Shudder’s The Devil’s Bath).
This is where the EFM comes into the picture. There were hundreds of fewer films and EFM screenings. A significant portion of this decline was in virtual screenings even though I can verify from those that used such screenings that they produced a compratively high level of attendance and at a far lower expense. The reduction in virtual mean fewer critics reviews and as a result fewer titles leaving the Berlinale with brandable brag. For all that sales and distribution execs bemoan this inclusive option the truth is it almost only results in benefit to the films. Further hitting the point home, is that the EFM venues have largely had capacity reduced but not their rates, yet another reason for virtual.
The EFM virtual viewing is set to the person’s time zone and allows for two hours to start the screening. This provides more flexibility for business meetings or even staying in bed for a bit for those who attended in person. The data of attendees is almost immediately viewable to the rights holder. The platform is also quite user friendly. My biggest complaint though is it has ZERO accessibility inclusion features. There’s no option for open captions, which especially given the global nature of the audience, should if anything be the default. English subtitles are only present for non-English language films. However, there’s reason to believe this may change in 2025 should they keep the virtual option in place.
So what is the value of Berlinale?
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