European Film Market to Hold Physical Screenings of Berlinale Films in Four Cities Outside Europe

The European Film Market, which is being staged as a virtual event from March 1-5, is to arrange screenings of films selected as part of the Berlin Film Festival lineup in movie theaters in four cities around the world.

The initiative, running under the banner “EFM Goes Global,” will see physical screenings for distributors in Tokyo for the Asian market, Melbourne for Oceania, São Paulo for South America, and Mexico City for Central America. EFM is teaming up with partners such as festivals, movie theaters and film institutions to facilitate the screenings, which will take place in March.

The partners in Tokyo are the Tokyo Intl. Film Festival, the film and television market Tiffcom, the Film School of Tokyo, and Eurolive Cinema.

In Melbourne, they are the Melbourne Intl. Film Festival’s MIFF 37ºSouth Market, Palace Cinemas, and The Kino in Melbourne.

In São Paulo, the partners are São Paulo Intl. Film Festival and Espaço Itaú de Cinema – Frei Caneca.

In Mexico City, they are Imcine, the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, and Cineteca Nacional de México.

“If distributors aren’t able to travel to Berlin this year, we want to bring the films to the distributors, and present them using the display technology they were created for: the big screen,” EFM director Dennis Ruh said.

“ ‘EFM Goes Global’ aims to support the successful international distribution of selected Berlinale titles. The initiative also makes it possible for smaller distribution companies from the respective territories to be included in the market.

“Another goal of ‘EFM Goes Global’ is to strive for more sustainability in the distribution business by avoiding air travel.”

Berlin’s artistic director Carlo Chatrian added: “I’m delighted that, in this unusual situation, the EFM has succeeded in maintaining the collective physical experience with this challenging and promising project. ‘EFM Goes Global’ gives the films of the Berlinale selection the opportunity to be shown in an actual cinema to a physically present industry audience.”

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