Cannes 2023: after Canada, Mexico, Chile, Norway and the three Baltic countries, Italy will headline the next edition, which will take place from February 15 to 21, 2024
(ID): EFM Director Dennis Ruh, General Director of Cinema and Audiovisual Nicola Borelli, Executive Director of Berlinale Mariette Riesenbeek, Venice Festival Director Alberto Barbera and Head of Special Projects and Internationalization of MIC and Cinecittà Roberto Stabile, during the press conference
On 20 May, Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM) together with Cinecittà and the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Directorate General of Cinema and Audiovisuals held a short press conference at the Italian Pavilion at the Marché du Film in Cannes.
EFM Director Dennis Ruh introduced the event with some statistics from last year: With a record-breaking 11,500 participants, 600 companies and 1,500 screenings, the 2023 European Film Market was the most successful edition ever. Italian participation greatly contributed to this: this year, there were more than 1,000 EFM participants and 60 participating companies from Italy.
Following the announcement, Marriott Riesenbeck, Managing Director of the Berlin Film Festival, highlighted the long-standing relationship between Berlinale, the European film market and Italy: Italian filmmakers and actors have often played key roles at Berlinale in the past – For example, Isabella Rossellini presided over the jury of the 61st edition in 2010. He also pointed out that many famous filmmakers are Italian, such as Federico Fellini and Roberto Benigni. And then came the big announcement: after Canada, Mexico, Chile, Norway and the three Baltic states in 2023, Italy will be the country in focus at the upcoming edition, which will unspool from 15-21 February 2024 in Berlin.
EFM’s Country in Focus section was launched in 2017. Nicola Borelli, director general of cinema and audiovisual at the Italian Ministry of Culture, explained that Italy was supposed to be the country in focus in 2020, and that would have been the case had it not been for the pandemic to shut everything down.
Roberto Stabile, Head of Special Projects and Internationalization at the renowned Italian film studios, MIC and Cinecitta, underlined that Italy’s participation in the EFM as the country in focus “will be an important moment to turn on the spotlight.” [the audiovisual] industry in a period of great change and development” as well as “an important opportunity to strengthen ties” [Italy’s] foreign partners” in the film industry.
