The sixth Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 8-10, 2009) was again a big success. 36 selected film projects from 25 countries were presented, and 500 professionals from 350 companies worldwide participated in the event. In Berlin, the producers of these projects met with interested potential co-producers and financiers in more than 1000 one-on-one meetings. Some deals were even closed directly on the spot in Berlin, adding to the Co-Production Market’s success rate: more than 35% of the selected projects from previous years have been realised.
This year’s new projects included works like Future Films’ The Diary by Bille August (Goodbye Bafana, Smilla’s Sense of Snow) and Pioneer by Erik Skjoldbjaerg (Prozac Nation, Insomnia), presented by the Norwegian company Friland. The official selection also included two German projects: Goodnight by Gregor Buchkremer, presented by Busse & Halberschmidt and Silence by Baran bo Odar, presented by CinePlus and Luethje & Schneider Filmproduktion.
Meeting at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, 2009
Frontrunners in country distribution were the UK and Israel, represented by three projects each.
In addition to the 22 projects (chosen from 333 submissions) in the official selection, four projects were presented at the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express in cooperation with the CineMart Rotterdam. Furthermore, ten newcomer projects from the Berlinale Talent Campus participants were presented at the Talent Project Market, three of which were presented at the Talent Highlight Pitch and won a monetary award: New Family (Producer: Elad Gavish, Israel) Akyat-Baba, Paikot-Ikot (Producer: Margie Templo, Philippines) and Palestinian Gangster (Producer: Meike Martens, Germany).
In addition to the 1000 pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings for the producers of the selected projects with potential partners, a tailormade framework programme offered many possibilities for its participants to expand their international network and to pick up interesting information:
- Case Studies on the festival films Storm and Adam Resurrected, focussing on co-production aspects and literary adaptation questions, respectively.
- Theme Talks where experts discussed hot topics with producers at a relaxed gathering. Featured topics included “typical” producers’ fields of activity such as “Casting" and “Music Rights,” as well as current “trend” topics, which were covered in the Theme Talks on “Creative Documentary” and “Biopics”.
- Country Tables with experts providing first-hand information on co-production and funding possibilities in selected countries
- Speed Matchings bringing together those participants interested in expanding their network for brief introductory meetings.
On the third day of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, the half-day special programme “Breakfast & Books” again brought together the “film world” and the “book world”. At this event, organised by the Berlinale Co-Production Market in co-operation with the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, publishers and literary agents presented their top novels to interested producers, followed by a joint breakfast which offered a relaxed atmosphere to get in touch and talk about the film rights to these books.
This year, twelve novels with high potential for screen adaptation were presented, all of which were bestsellers, award-winners or yet to-be-published books, and many fruitful conversations ensued between publishers, agents and producers after the pitch.
Case Study Storm (733 KB)
