Editor

Re-positioning the European Film Market remains the only major Berlinale task left for Dieter Kosslick.
With the American Film Market moving to November to compete head on with MIFED, Kosslick has been given, in his words “a historical opportunity” to enhance the Berlinale. A minor consideration is shifting the dates for the Berlinale possibly by one week to adjust to the new February slot of the Oscars. The new guiding concept for EFM and its changes will be revealed in May during the Cannes Fest.

Kosslick’s innovations have given the Berlinale the cachet it deserves through his introduction of components like the Talent Campus, now emulated by other festivals, and his accentuation of the political flair of the Berlinale without succumbing to commercial interests. Thus, one can expect significant changes for the European Film Market. Controversy surrounded the Berlinale’s move to Postdamer Platz engineered by politicians who needed an attractive and prestigious anchor for the largest construction side in Europe. Though the nostalgia for the old location faded, the concern with the limited exhibition space for EFM in the Daimler building and screening facilities at Berlinale locations has grown.

If the co-production market which Kosslick set up at the 2003 Berlinale following a model he successfully used at the Cologne Medien Forum teams with EFM more space will be required. But greater is the impact of the new time frame for international markets which will result in much pressure to enlarge the European Film Market. For once industry sources assume that several US majors and mini majors will not attend MIFED restricting instead their European tour to Cannes and possibly trying out Berlin. One advantage is EFM’s link to the Berlinale film festival, an asset MIFED does not have. Much commercial gain cannot be expected from attending the MIFED and AFM markets scheduled back to back offering mostly the same productions to the same audience of buyers. Further in spite of a generous 7 million euro budget enhancement and concomitant perks for trade visitors MIFED participation is expensive compared to Berlin’s EFM bargain.

Yet Kosslick and Probst want to maintain the profile of the European Film Market as not being mainstream compared to AFM and to a lesser extent Cannes. The upscale orientation of the European Film Market, its ‘art house’ appeal, intimacy, and attraction for non-theatrical distributors and for representatives of the rapidly growing film festival market, to name but a few facets, make it distinctly different. It is no small indication of the quality of the 400+ films shown, that about 40 percent had been selected for different sections of the 2004 Berlinale.


For Probst moving the EFM to a different location is not a viable option in spite of Berlin’s superb transportation system. A Los Angeles scenario where AFM participants have to battle traffic to get to AFI is not acceptable. But growth in the current location is impossible without major expenses and/ore dislocating other commercial tenants from the Daimler building, hardly likely since Mercedes is no longer an official sponsor of the Berlinale. Thus very few options are available except for going underground.

Kosslick emphasized that he needed only one million euros to effectuate the changes and will, so he says, have no problem getting these funds, presumably from a combination of private and public, that is federal, sources. No reason to doubt him since he came up with about one million dollars for the Talent Campus which is according to Anthony Minghella, “ the most important initiative for the future of the Berlinale”.

The only viable venue for the European Film Market is underground, in walking distance right in the regional railway station Postdamer Platz. There are recently built tunnels for a subway project, the U-3 connecting Alexander Platz and Posdamer Platz which is no longer planned for completion. As happened to New York’s famous 2nd Avenue the funders ran out of money. These tunnels and the station connected to it represent lots of space owned by the City of Berlin which is cheaply accessible. Berliners are familiar with the venue since it has already been used for exhibition.

To date there has only been one joking reference by Dieter Kosslick to going underground. But than, this is his (last?) historical opportunity to leave his imprint before he turns to save theatrical exhibition.

Claus Mueller