Markets

Italy is the “Country in Focus” at the EFM - European Film Market of the 74th Berlinale (15-21 February 2024), with a rich program of events across all sections of the market. The program starts on February 19th with a complete overview of the funding opportunities in Italy for international partners and culminates on February 19th with the Special Event "Celebrating Connections" in the presence of the Undersecretary to the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiC), Senator Lucia Borgonzoni.

At this edition there are 8 titles of production and coproduction present in the Festival's official Selection, including two films in Competition; a Shooting Star - Valentina Bellè - in the dedicated program for European acting talents; a juror, Jasmine Trinca, for the international Competition.

Thanks to the renewed collaboration between the Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture (DGCA-MIC) and ICE-Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies, the Italian Pavilion will be present at the Gropius Bau Museum, the headquarters of the European Film Market from February 15 to 21. The multifunctional space of the Italian Pavilion is designed, set up, and managed by Cinecittà.

The official website www.italianpavilion.it will also be included in the EFM platform, with the schedule of screenings of Italian films at the Berlinale and the Market, and the program of all the organized initiatives.

The intense program starts on Friday, February 16, with "Film and Audiovisual Funding in Italy", an important meeting to tell about the regulatory landscape and the financing systems of the Italian film industry and thus discover the opportunities for co-production with our country.
On the same day, the panel "Italian Independent Producers Presentation" will present some of the most dynamic young independent production realities, while the three-part session "Leading Change: producers at the wheel" will reflect on the evolution of the role of independent producers in a market that is changing ever more rapidly.
The protagonists of Saturday, February 17, are the producers of the Visitors Programme of the Berlinale, who want to deepen their knowledge and strategies for international co-productions. While a meeting at the Italian Pavilion between Italian producers and a delegation of Colombian and Dominican producers will lay the groundwork for future international co-production projects.

On February 18, it will start with "Cappuccino with Italians", the usual appointment of the Italian Film Commissions with international professionals, followed by the "VFF Talent Highlight Award", which will award the best among the ten producers participating in the Talent Project Market.
On the same day, there will be an in-depth discussion on artificial intelligence for audience design in documentaries, but the Italian presence will also go through "Books at Berlinale", a space dedicated to the adaptation of books for the screen in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair. At the end of the day, finally, the panel "Zone of interest: distribution trends for online releases" will analyze the trends of online distribution in the post-pandemic era.

On February 19, there will be talks about Seriality - a genre in which Italy is strongly present at the Berlinale - with the presentation at the Market of the restoration of 'Il Camorrista - La serie' by Giuseppe Tornatore.

And there will be talk of animation: "Successive learnings: entering the territory of indie animation" (Monday 19) and film archives with "Archive Market", Tuesday 20, thanks to an informative corner dedicated to the great heritage of the Luce Archive, in the presence of Enrico Bufalini, Director of the Luce-Cinecittà Archive.

A special event of "Italy Country in Focus", organized by MiC and Cinecittà, will be "Celebrating Connections", which will take place on February 19 from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Gropius Dome. On this occasion, a format strongly desired by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture Lucia Borgonzoni and inaugurated last October, within the Tokyo International Film Festival, with the aim of promoting Italian audiovisual abroad and establishing new cultural, artistic, and professional synergies with other country systems will be proposed again. The audience present will thus be "teleported" to an iconic place of Italian cinema, Cinecittà, while young talents with a future in the international industry, including actors, directors, authors, and producers, will alternate on stage. The concept of the Pavilion at the Berlinale 2024 plays with the silhouette of the Bear, the city's symbol and of the Festival. The Italian Pavilion at the Berlinale 2024 is promoted by the Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture (DGCA-MIC) and ICE-Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies, and is designed, set up, and managed by Cinecittà.

The Pavilion is located in the spaces of the Gropius Bau, at stand C3/05. Website: www.italianpavilion.it