Can Cannes Compete? Because Berlin Means Business - Page 1
| Author: | LL |
| Date: | Sun, 12/03/2006 - 00:40 |
| Category: | Comment > Film Festivals |
Can Cannes Compete? Because Berlin Means Business
A strange suggestion, you might think, that the undisputed heavyweight champion of festivals might need to up its game. The ever-improving Berlin, though, is at last drawing enough favourable comparisons to its French counterpart to make this a reality. Where Venice has struggled to beef up, Berlin has bravely taken on the challenge.
This, the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, saw a revamped EFM (European Film Market) which has expanded both physically, with a move to the stunning Martin-Gropius-Bau building and in international significance, with changes to the AFM (American Film Market). Morritz de Hadeln, running Venice, has lost his battles to establish a proper functioning market on the Lido; the success of the EFM makes it clear why he's been trying so hard. Business means buzz, and it's infectious. When buyers and sellers are happy (which, aside from a few teething niggles, they were) the atmosphere of the festival lifts. More varied and influential players attend, and there is a greater sense of purpose.
Class
EFM
The key difference between the EFM and the market at Cannes (apart from, of course, the current relative dominance of the latter) is the atmosphere. It's classier. The beautiful building bestows a kind of dignity on proceedings, with the "stands" no longer the ramshackle set of tables and flimsy backboards of previous years. They're rooms set up with great care. Where at Cannes you're always in danger of keeling over from exhaustion (and trampled over when you do, because it's your fault for being in the way), at the EFM you're offered free tea (choose from a dazzling range) and a comfy chair, and a proper discussion with almost anyone you choose.
They're building links with Germany's other world-leading events, too. The Frankfurt Book Fair is the biggest in the world and the organisers are now running a stand and events at the Berlinale to bring together publishers, producers and agents to promote adaptation projects. Obvious, you might think, but this doesn't happen to the same degree anywhere else. The London Book Fair has rather half-heartedly experimented with similar schemes; they'd do well to learn from Frankfurt.
A very few attendees expressed some gripes: the first weekend was too busy (popular, surely). "Passing trade" has been limited by the number of real walls in the building (bunkum, surely), and the Americans didn't have as successful a time as "foreign" (sic) companies (tough). We can be sure that the organisers will take heed of all this, because they're clearly pulling out all the stops for next year. Pre-bookings are reportedly already 100.
