European Film Market Chief on Shielding Sales Agents as They Face Challenges: ‘I’m Really Mindful of Their Cost Sensitivity’
In May, the Berlin Film Festival appointed Tanja Meissner as director of Berlinale Pro*, a role that includes leading the European Film Market as well as overseeing Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents, its program for young filmmakers, and the World Cinema Fund.
Meissner, a German-French citizen, has more than 25 years of experience in the film industry, including working at leading sales agencies Celluloid Dreams, from 2000 to 2007, and Memento Films, from 2007 to 2021.
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Running the EFM is particularly challenging as its core clients, the sales agents, are under increasing economic pressure. “The sales agents are still a very important link in the value chain for independent films, and if the market narrows down too much, it’s beneficial to no one,” Meissner tells Variety. “So, I’m really mindful of their cost sensitivity. We kept the prices at the same level as last year because we want to respond to the challenges that they are facing.”
She adds: “Our role is to provide a hyper efficient infrastructure for them and remain affordable.”
As well as being a trading platform, the EFM offers other opportunities to attendees, the foremost of them is the chance to network.
“Networking is a powerful tool that I wanted to enhance at EFM,” she says. “I think mingling is essential.” These opportunities include the Breakfast Club, the Happy Innovation Hour, a Dine and Shine dinning event with Berlinale Talents, and a mixer for festival programmers. The Co-Production Market offers another way to meet producers, financiers and filmmakers.
As well as sales agents, Meissner is intent on making EFM a hub for other folks in the film industry. For example, she has introduced a Distributor Award, to recognize distribution’s commercial, social and political contribution to both the industry and society, which is “often undervalued,” she says. “When stories cross borders it fosters a deeper understanding [between cultures and communities]. We often discuss the importance of fostering this kind of mutual understanding.” This year the award is going to Huub Roelvink from Cherry Pickers Film Distribution in the Netherlands.
Embracing technology and innovation is of growing importance for producers and is provided for with the EFM’s Innovation Hub. “I want to create relevant offerings for producers who are really progressive and are keen to explore innovation and new business models,” Meissner says. “Technology is a real enabler and it’s still a bit of a black box to many of us, but we need to be tech savvy as an industry.”
She says that Berlin at its best, through all its various activities, offers myriad opportunities for “peer to peer learning.” She adds that the business has become “so complex that you have to have a wide range of expertise,” especially for producers. “So that’s something we want to encourage.”
Talking about Berlinale Pro*’s broad remit, Meissner explains that the festival wanted to create a platform that would serve all sectors of the industry. “This is a multi-perspective approach that we’re fostering here,” she says. Priorities include career development and promoting innovation and social cohesion. “There’s a lot of knowledge sharing,” she says. “It’s also about recognizing the power of community building.”
Series remain an important focus for Berlinale Pro*, and its efforts are channelled through Berlinale Series Market Selects, which is in its 11th year. Many companies now produce both films and series, and the streaming platforms have adopted “a more cinematic approach to storytelling,” Meissner says, and “it’s important for markets to recognize that.” EFM and Variety are partnering on a day of panels devoted to series this year.
Berlinale chief Tricia Tuttle and Meissner are determined that the EFM and the other industry activities under Meissner’s direction remain in “close proximity” to the festival, both geographically and operationally, and there are many synergies that exist between the two. The career of German director-writer Nora Fingscheidt illustrates this. In 2017, she took part in Berlinale Talents and she was in Berlin’s Script Station that same year, where she wrote “System Crasher,” which won Berlin’s Silver Bear in 2019, and became the German Oscar candidate. Then, last year, Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun” played at the Berlinale and was nominated for two BAFTAs.
“As an image for those types of careers, we see it as a spiral,” Meissner says. “To be able to build on something and then to come back. It ensures a very healthy pipeline. It’s a way of ensuring that there are synergies between bringing emerging talent into the industry and being a springboard for them to make a sustainable career out of their talent.”
Another example is Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón, who’s had several projects in the Berlin co-production market, and won Berlin’s best first feature award with “Summer 1993” and the Golden Bear with “Alcarràs.”
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