EFM organisers have reported a 5% increase in the number of participants at this year’s market in Berlin with more than 12,500 professionals attending various programmes including a suite of inaugural events.
Germany produced the largest amount of participants, followed by the US, France, UK and Italy, while visitor numbers from China and India “decreased slightly”. Country-specific numbers were not provided.
All in all 606 films screened during the market, an increase on last year. There was an overall 83.2% market premiere rate and there were 1,794 buyers in attendance. The market, overseen by Berlinale Pro director Tanja Meissner, also reported a 20% increase in screening-guest scans on the first day of the market.
The major EFM venues like Gropius Bau, the Marriott Hotel, and the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation Berlin each reported attendance growth between 10% and 18%. The EFM programme’s social reach grew, too, with an increased of 4,500 followers on EFM’s social channels within the last 30 days.
Market organisers said that new events such as EFM Animation Days and the Games IP Pitching Sessions “were met with amazingly strong industry interest”, although they did not provide engagement numbers. The EFM Beyond programme with its Cross-IP accelerator and a new Immersive Zone reported sold-out 60-minute sessions across four VR stations.
The latest editions of Producers Hub and Innovation Hub were also said to have generated strong interest, while the expanded EFM Industry Programme drew 369 international speakers, experts and hosts in more than 100 masterclasses, workshops and panels exploring production and distribution from various perspectives including innovative virtual workflows and AI-supported audience engagement.
There was a 10% year-on-year attendance increase at the DocSalon promgramme, while the inaugural Berlinale Film School Summit drew more than 120 student attendees from 18 schools across 13 counteries.
In its second year the Distributor Award supporting European arthouse distributors went to Romania’s Bad Unicorn. Two inaugural awards were handed out: the EFM StartUps Award in partnership with Screen International went to WeDaVinci CEO Veronika Gamper for her AI-storyboard pitch. The Berlinale Series Market presented the Studio Babelsberg Production Excellence Award to Cláudio Torres, Márcio Maranhão and Andrucha Waddington, creators of Emergência 53.
The Berlinale Series Market featured 17 international scripted series and three documentary series and brought a new collaboration with Iberseries & Platino Industria through Series Match, the exclusive meeting format connecting 10 companies from each region.
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