Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBesides being a showcase for international films, the Berlinale is a platform for German cinema.
There are more than 130 German films and co-productions screening across the festival and the European Film Market.Pre-pandemic, in 2019, 237 German films were produced a year, but only 10 to 20 a year perform well internationally, according to Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, which promotes Teutonic movies abroad.
Of the total worldwide admissions for European films in 2019, 6% were German films, compared with 18% for French films, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.To raise the performance of local pics, German Films is seeking to begin its promotional work earlier in the life of a project, such as at works-in-progress sessions at festivals including Les Arcs.
The objective is to catch the eye of festival programmers, distributors and sales agents at an early stage. Thorsten Ritter, executive VP acquisitions, sales and marketing at Beta Cinema, says while there may not be many German-language films in the major sections of the A-list festivals, the filmmakers display great versatility, with a wide variety of voices.
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