kicking off this week in Berlin could mark a return to a familiar, old-fashioned balance of power between buyers and sellers. And as the impact of the pandemic retreats, there is cautious optimism that activity levels may now be more sustainable and fairer.
“Between the films that are there and the scripts reading, this market feels like a real market,” says Scott Shooman, head of acquisitions and production at leading U.S. independent IFC. “Cannes [in May 2022] felt like there was a decent amount of projects, but I think people were out of practice. The AFM [in November] seemed that buyers were only concerned about complaining. Berlin just feels like a really good blend of finished films, promos and scripts.
“As we saw at Sundance, if there are commercial movies, the streamers are going to be willing to pay top dollar for them,” says Dylan Leiner, senior executive VP of acquisitions and production at Sony Pictures Classics. “Prices have held [even if] we’ve gone past the bubble phase. It was just a feeding frenzy because all these [streaming] services were getting up and running. Now I think we’re at a healthy stage,” says Rob Carney, SVP of international sales at FilmNation, who notes that the company generally prefers to “go independent” rather than sell directly to streamers for most movies. “That’s our core business.”“What happens is it’s always back and forth.
So far, China remains absent from the marketplace. Multiple COVID impacts, political tensions and a wobbly economic outlook mean there is little need for Chinese buyers to get on planes before next month’s Hong Kong FilMart or Cannes in May. South Korea, the world’s fourth largest theatrical market as recently as 2019, is still laboring with a backlog of local product, and remains similarly quiet.
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