Markets

From Berlin – Our correspondent Lühr-Martin Lemkau

The Berlinale Series Market took place from February 15-18 as part of the European Film Market (EFM) with various panels, sessions, and screenings. At the well-attended panel “Up Next: Germany” producers shared first images and insights about four upcoming projects which will air on German screens in 2026.

Up Next: Germany – 15 years of developments and a call from the commissioner
An impressive first look scene of “Westend Girl”, starring Golden Globe-nominee Helena Zengel (“News of the World”) was shown in attendance of the seventeen years old German actress. Based on a true story, the 9-year-old Ronja is forced to grow up overnight when her parents are suddenly arrested for drug trafficking. Creator & director Pola Beck shared the origin of the project, which is based on the story of a former classmate of her. It took 15 years to make the series become reality, and Beck shared, that she had always the feeling that she owed it to her friend to bring her story to the screen. The series is produced by Flare Film for WDR and ARTE, world sales by Beta Film. Creator and head author Richard Kropf (“Kleo”, “4 Blocks”) explained that the filmmakers “did not create reality step by step” and that “all the drama comes from the people.”

“The Dark Ones” is a supernatural “mystery on a flat island” in the Northern Sea, when “the most evil person coming into our world”. Director Lea Becker (“Love Sucks”) explained that the series was shot in Belgium, a lot of sand was brought to the Brussels studios, but only four, five people from Germany joined the crew on the set. Producer Andi Wecker shared, that they “need twice the money” and the Belgian tax shelter system “helped us to make a show that wasn’t able to do this way in Germany”. Asked about the origins of the project, Wecker shared the “dream of every producer” that pubcaster ZDF asked for “a very dark mystery on an island” – and they had the project is on the shelf. Studio Zentral and Network Movie produced the series for ZDFneo with funding from Austria, Germany, and Belgium.

Christina Peter, Senior Development Producer Local Original Productions at Warner, shared that when considering the possibilities of a sequel of the hit series “4 Blocks”, they realized that they "killed to many people” at the end of three seasons, so they came up with a prequel – called “4 Blocks Zero”. Producer - and Chief Creative & Chief Production Officer at Leonine - Quirin Berg (“Dark”) shared “the after three seasons all was told” and that there always is a thin line cheering for the bad guys, and that it is important “to show which price you pay for a bad life”. “4 Blocks Zero” portraits Berlin in the 1990ies and the story follows the question, how the Hamady family became what it was. Director Hüseyin Tabak (“Oskar's Dress”) talked about the long casting process and the importance to have new faces to “not the 4 or 5 people who always play the Kurds.” W&B Television produced the series for HBO Max.

The fourth and final production presented on the panel was also for HBO MAX, which launched in Germany in January: “Clangold” (WT) is a lighthearted true-crime documentary about the one of the most spectacular robberies in German history in March 2017: the theft of the “Big Maple Leaf,” a gold coin weighing 100 kilograms, from Berlin's Bode Museum. The robbers transport the loot with a wheelbarrow and “no one was murdered” as producer Christian Beetz (“Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King”) of Leonine’s Beetz Brothers stressed. The first clips gave a preview of an entertaining documentary and were well received in the theater.

It’s a Seriesmatch
As a premiere, Berlinale teamed up with Iberseries & Platino Industria for a matching initiative called “Seriesmatch” for German and Ibero-American producers. Five companies from each territory come together, presenting their projects at an early development stage.
Five production companies were selected from Brazil, ChilelmUruguay, and Spain: Alterna Media, Boutique Filmes, Funicular Films, Movioca, and Villano. These companies met with five selected German partners: Beta Film, SKP Entertainment, Studio Zentral, UFA Fiction, and Zeitsprung.

During the Berlinale Series Market Selects 20 productions from around the globe were screened near the Potsdamer Platz. In total 10 out of 17 fiction series, which were chosen for Series Market Selects in 2026, were Spanish or Portuguese language shows or co-productions. Africa was represented by a series from the EFM “Country in Focus” Morocco called “K-1”.

How to reach the youngsters

In the panel “Marketing That Works” hosted by the - as always - very professional and entertaining AC Coppens, the panelists discussed the changing audience behavior. Marina Kosten, Senior Fellow from the Annenberg Center For The Digital Future, shared that attention spans are getting shorter and it’s hard to catch and retain information, especially with young audiences, “the younger the harder to get”.

She stressed that the younger audiences open films and that they are coming back to the theaters, but on a small level and that it’s essential for the industry to teach young audiences to go the cinemas. Kosten lamented that there’s “very little data about ticket sales and marketing data” and that it’s important to team up with distributors. As well she stressed the importance of shareabilty “make it super easy for people to share! Content needs to shareable – like Google says, two clicks are too many, it need’s to be instant and easy”

The former Prime Video and Paramount marketing executive Adriana Trautman warned to not overestimate the importance of new stuff like vertical as it is not mass-market, but of course important to check and test and learn. “Don’t overjudge echo chambers, they are not reflective of your overall audience.” She spoke about the differences between marketing a film for theaters and streaming, emphasizing that the effort to leave your home is “quite significant” and you have to work hard to convince them. Instead of re-targeting people how saw the trailer, Trautman recommended to retarget people how already bought a ticket as those are the people who really could get others to buy a ticket.

Oliver Fegan, CEO of usheru, talked about the challenges of paid advertising not coming through to young audiences and increasing importance of AI for search “people going to AI for everything” He stressed that a credible source is key for AI and right tagging is essential.

EFM Startups: AI, AI, AI
It was (almost) all about AI at the 12th Berlinale EFM Startups, where entrepreneurs from across the globe showcased their solutions for the industry.
Germany’s Chameleon and Lux AI presented AI-driven localization and virtual production lighting tools, respectively, while Austria’s Crewser introduced a streamlined time tracking and payroll platform for film crews. FilmAmo from Italy presented a dedicated social network for cinephiles, and the Korean start up SHORTS pitched their “AI Super-Scaler” for video restoration and 4K upscaling.

Mureel from Estonis offered a sustainability compliance SaaS for European productions, and France’s Refractio debuted a search engine for visual references, “revolutionizing film archive with AI” Polish startup team4set tackled crew networking with a “LinkedIn for Filmmakers”, while Denmark’s Vievo focused on creator-led marketing, and Ukraine’s Wantent leveraged AI to analyze viewer emotions.
Rounding out the lineup, German startups Wavery presented a privacy-first audio transcription tool, and WeDaVinci AI unveiled a human-AI co-creation platform generating early-stage video materials from text. The latter, with CEO Veronika Gamper presenting on stage, won the newly launched EFM Startups Award.

More EFM visitors
More than 12,500 professionals attended the European Film Market 2026 at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival aka Berlinale, which was a five percent increase in participants. Beside the German participants, visitors from the U.S. represented the second-largest group, followed by France, the UK and Italy.

Lühr-Martin Lemkau, founder of SLICK STRATEGY (est. 2023), brings more than two decades of leadership experience in the international television industry. Prior to launching his consultancy, he served as SVP Marketing at Beta Film, Director of Business Strategy at Sony Pictures, and Head of Third Party Business at Sky. Lemkau holds a bachelor’s degree in Media Marketing (BAW) and specializes in strategic positioning, business development, and market-driven growth across the global TV sector.