Dennis Ruh, head of the European Film Market, has been in his office since 9 a.m. On this day he hurries from one conference to the next or leads political delegations through the corridors of the Martin-Gropius-Bau. That’s his daily business during the Berlinale.
During the fair, Ruh walked the market for an hour and a half with members of the Berlin House of Representatives and explained to them how the stock exchange works – at the stands of the Baltic States, the USA, Thailand, Japan and Great Britain. Or the Caribbean with its up-and-coming young film scene, which has so far hardly been able to draw attention to itself.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) came to the fair twice, also because of Ukraine. “We organized a Ukrainian stand and supported the filmmakers – with travel, with various permits and also with financial means,” says Dennis Ruh. Solidarity with the country was great in the industry: “It was a very political Berlinale this year.”
Dennis Ruh has headed the EFM since 2020. He took the helm in stormy times. Corona was rampant, the stock exchange only took place online. In addition to the talks and rounds, he missed hugging and shaking hands; simply human-to-human contact. That’s how business works.
The EFM boss says: “The film business is a people business. It’s a business that’s very much networked. There is a lot of passion in the films, a lot of artistic creativity.” And that’s why this meeting point is needed. Sitting on the sofa in his office, he continues: “I’ve also never heard of a co-production where the producers didn’t meet in person somewhere and then make a film together. It just takes this mutual trust, the exchange, and that has simply been missing in the last two Corona years.
There was a great deal of optimism, also with regard to the distribution business.
This time it was a better feeling, he says: “I met our exhibitors and distributors this year and noticed that the people were with a big smile on their faces and were just really happy that they this circle has now closed again.” There was a great deal of optimism, “also with regard to the sales business, which has its home here”.
This is sorely needed, because the cinema and thus the film have also suffered in recent years – the number of viewers has declined. Streaming services shot up out of the ground. The market has since recovered a bit. According to industry services, 73.5 million tickets were sold in 2022. That was significantly more than in 2021 (+83 percent), but still less than in 2019 before the pandemic began (-33 percent). Ticket sales were 694 million euros, down 28 percent compared to 2019.
Dennis Ruh sips his coffee. How viewers can be brought back to the cinema is the big question that is preoccupying the industry. A question that is also linked to funding. “The young viewers are particularly important. That doesn’t work without a certain investment, not just economically. However, this is not only an issue at the EFM, but also in society as a whole, as well as in terms of cultural policy. I’m very excited to see what, for example, Claudia Roth’s initiative, the KulturPass for 18-year-olds, which should also include cinema visits, will achieve.” He puts his cup back on the table.
Berlinale: The lights went out on the festival grounds at 11 p.m
There is a spacious seating area in his office, and this year’s Berlinale poster by Berlin graphic designer Claudia Schramke hangs on the wall. Dark background, a bit red, dark painted people in the cinema again. The color choices work well in the light coming through the large window. In the evening, however, the work sank into darkness during the Berlinale. On the festival grounds, people could hardly see it because the lights were switched off after 11 p.m. Nationwide energy saving measures because of the consequences of the war in Ukraine. The Martin-Gropius-Bau was not allowed to be heated to more than 19 degrees. Dennis Ruh, who studied cultural studies, audiovisual communication, sociology and history in Bremen and Valencia, found the temperatures pleasant.
About ten meters from Dennis Ruh’s office, it’s like a beehive on the days of the fair. Films and productions are offered in the Martin-Gropius-Bau like fine silk wrapped in colorful brochures with beautiful pictures. Here, in the heart of the Berlinale, stories are traded, film distributors are looking for good material to bring to the screen.
For the providers this means: You have to know the lender profiles; know to whom you can offer which material. You have to be a good salesman, a bit of a barker, a bit of a diplomat. “It takes skill,” says a British trader. He grins: “The negotiations are taking place in secret though.”
It is a key event for the film industry because the EFM is the economic backbone of the Berlinale.
After all, it’s about the commodity film; about pulling the audience into distant, strange or yearning worlds. But before a film reaches the cinemas, it has already come a long way. The screenplay is written, a production company is organized and the shooting is financed, and doorknobs are cleaned at the funding agencies and other sponsors. Then the film has to be sold to a distribution company. This, in turn, brings the film to the cinemas – the cycle closes, and all of this also happens at the Berlinale.
Dennis Ruh nods: “For the public eye, it is certainly more of an event that takes place in the background. It is a key event for the film industry because the EFM is the economic backbone of the Berlinale.” The market and the festival are mutually dependent. The films that are shown in the Berlinale program are sold in the EFM trade. Established German directors were also represented again this year, with five in the competition alone. A well-known name helps in the distribution business. For example, there has long been a great enthusiasm for the films of Christian Petzold in France.
Dennis RuhAngela Regenbrecht
$60 million for the film rights to A Man Called Otto
Deals worth millions are regularly made at the EFM, including last year, despite Corona and online trading. A total of 60 million dollars was paid for the international exploitation rights of “A Man Named Otto” by Marc Forster starring Tom Hanks, which was released in German cinemas at the beginning of February. “That was an exceptionally high volume. But it looks like the sales business is going well this year as well,” says the EFM manager.
On Thursday he presented the numbers: There were 230 stands, 612 companies from 78 countries and a total of more than 11,500 trade visitors from 132 countries. 773 films were shown in 1533 screenings, including 647 online screenings and 599 market premieres. The total of 1302 buyers also grew. 629 film projects were presented on the new Producers & Project Pages. According to the EFM, this is “a record result”. The trade fair has thus “impressively demonstrated” its position as one of the most important international platforms for trading in audiovisual content.
Documentary series are a trend that we also discussed at the Berlinale Series Market.
Action movies did well this year, as did star-studded Hollywood blockbusters. Dennis Ruh says that the series format is still in great demand, such as “Babylon Berlin”, but also now “Der Schwarm”, which is now running in the ZDF media library. “Historical fabrics also sell very well. And docuseries are a trend that we also discussed at the Berlinale Series Market. And of course German films like “Nothing New in the West” – that’s the flagship because of the nine Oscar nominations and the seven BAFTA awards,” says the EFM director.
He adds: “One genre that could still be singled out is animated films. They are the absolute international bestseller because they are easier to evaluate in different territories because there are fewer cultural hurdles.” It is no secret that German comedies, for example, do not work so well abroad: “German humor is often simply not like that internationally easy to understand.”
Humor is a very cultural story. “Fack ju Göhte” was an exception. The film was very successful in Germany and also sold well worldwide: From France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic to the CIS countries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to South Korea and Taiwan, says Dennis Ruh. Then he gets up, he still has several appointments until late in the evening. Retail never sleeps during the Berlinale. And not afterwards either.