Berlin Film Festival: The 12 Biggest Takeaways

variety.com:

Berlin Film Festival has staged its first in-person edition since 2020, soldiering on amid a wave of the COVID omicron variant in Germany and a last-minute virtual pivot for the European Film Market.

Here are our main takeaways below:Film Industry Pining For In-Person Meetings Despite the EFM being online, a clutch of buyers and sellers made the trek to Berlin where they held a mix of online and physical meetings in the Marriott and a very bare Gropius Bau.

Though the fest nixed parties due to omicron concerns, film delegations held dinners for select outsiders that felt like clandestine wartime get-togethers. “Enough with the Zooms!

We need the human contact to make deals,” said Vision Distribution’s Catia Rossi, a veteran Italian sales agent, during the dinner for Panorama title “Swing Ride.” “I never thought I’d say this, but give me back the AFM!” Technical difficultiesThe opening night screening of Francois Ozon’s “Peter von Kant” was marred by technical difficulties about 30 minutes in, and audiences had to wait 15 minutes in total for the projection to get back up and running, with artistic director Carlo Chatrian standing by anxiously.