15/02/2003

Despite the threat of imminent war and consequent market uncertainty, and the proximity of this year’s European Film Market at the 53rd Berlinale to the American Film Market (19-26 February in Santa Monica), business was surprisingly good according to EFM chief, Beki Probst. It was certainly an improvement on 2002 when the after-effects of 9/11 either scared dealers off, or saw them leave Berlin early.
Caution however was very much the watchword: the drop-off in television acquisitions, added to the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Spanish, German and Italian pay-TVs made buyers listen more closely to what film critics were saying. Buyers also asked for (and got) many more screenings than were initially scheduled. That was certainly true for Bavaria Film International, who organised extra viewings of their competition entries: Goodbye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker and Sino-German co-production, Blind Shaft by Li Yang, as well as Caroline Link’s Oscar-nominated Nowhere in Africa [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Spanish distributors and buyers were few and far between and their Asian and Latin American counterparts were noted for their absence: they will likely be out in force at the AFM. With the notable exception of China, Asian buyers seem to have ignored the EFM. But the market for Asian films has now opened up beyond traditional German and French customers to include the UK and Scandinavia.

If further proof were needed of the impact that DVD has had on the film industry, it was forthcoming in Berlin, where numerous buyers, especially from Italy and Spain, actively searched out titles (not necessarily the most recent ones) to beef up their DVD libraries.
London-based Capitol Films sold Gabriele Salvatores', I’m Not Scared [+see also:
trailer
interview: Gabriele Salvatores
film profile] to Miramax for, it is said, over Euros1.2million (USDollars1.2m+), for north American territories thus renewing the Italian filmmaker’s collaboration with the Studio that resulted in his Oscar victory for Mediterraneo in 1998. Capitol also sold the Almodovar brothers’ El Deseo production of Isabel Coixet’s Mi vida sin mi (My Life Without Me) to America.

The French company, Pathé International sold Broken Wings, screened in Panorama Special to Sony Pictures Classics.

Films Distribution sold Lucas Belvaux's trilogy to US distibutor Magnolia while Germany’s The Coproduction Office sold the Icelandic co-production, Noi albinoi , to Palm Pictures.