15/02/2013 - Biggest sales hit at the European Film Market in Berlin was Gloria

While the sales agents are starting to dismantle their booths in the Martin-Gropius building, the European Film Market still goes on. Offers have to be checked and many details are discussed before contracts are closed. The Chilean competition entry Gloria [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is not only a hot candidate for the Golden Bear but was also the biggest sales hit at this year's EFM. The French world sales agency Funny Ballons sold this comedy about a 58-year-old divorcee who is looking for love to a dozen territories straight away. 

Some German art-house distributors started a bidding war for Gloria, which was won by Alamode Film. "It is absurd to pay a six-digit number for a film from Latin America," said Stefan Paul of Arsenal Film. "Therefore, we pulled out." Gloria was picked up by art-house distributors in all European key territories such as France (Ad Vitam), Great Britain (Network Releasing), Benelux (Wild Bunch Benelux), Spain (Vertigo) and Switzerland (Filmcoopi).

Further sales hit are the competition titles The Nun [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Camille Claudel 1915 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bruno Dumont
film profile], An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danis Tanović
film profile], as well as Before Midnight [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. "It is much easier to sell a film that is presented in the official festival program where it gets much higher attention," said Paola Corvino, CEO of the Italian world sales outfit Intramovies. "If a film is shown in a market screening in front of only a handful of people, it is not worth paying 1,000 euro for the screening fee." Corvino suggested dedicating the EMF in the first two, three days to screenings only and follow up with wheeling and dealing afterwards. The most successful titles that Intramovies sold to various European territories were the Italian drama Ali Blue Eyes, the comedy Every Blessed Day by Paolo Virzi and Russendisko.

"We are trying to be as diplomatic as we can when we schedule the market screenings," emphasized EFM Director Beki Probst. But with a total of 1,150 screenings at the EFM it becomes a Catch-22 to fulfill all the requests completely. The most demanded film slots are at 11am and 3pm, because these do not clash with breakfast, lunch or the happy hour that starts at 5pm. "The festival is testing the possibilities of video-on-demand," adds Probst. "But VoD can only be an add-on in case a buyer missed a movie. The distributors want to see how a film is received by other buyers."

According to the latest numbers from the EFM office, there were 1,690 buyers and a total of 7,600 participants at the 2013 edition of the market. One reason for the increase is that several new companies from Asia and Eastern Europe have entered the market, while the economic crisis in Spain, Italy and Greece has become more noticeable. Probst observed that some companies came with smaller teams and spent less money on marketing in order to cut down some of their costs. "It is a difficult time for the art-house market," the EFM director concluded. "We can only provide the companies with an infrastructure."