EFM first-timers line up

Market debutants from Asia will include Ablaze Image, a new international sales and distribution company based in Taiwan that specialises in Chinese-language features. Ablaze will work from the Taiwan Cinema stand.

Other newcomers from Asia include Japanese producer-distributor Kadokawa Corp; the Malaysian Astro Shaw group of production and distribution companies; Malaysia’s industry-led, government-funded Creative Content Association; and the Indonesian martial arts action production house Skylar Pictures from South Jakarta.

In addition, the Marriott Hotel will serve as a base for the Chinese film and TV production house Beijing Galloping Horse and the Hong Kong-based sales agent One Dollar Distributon whose line-up includes time-travelling action adventure Iceman 3D and the action comedy Hong Kong Undercover Cop.

European debutants

Fledgling European outfits setting up shop for the first time at the EFM (Feb 6-14) will include Berlin-based Picture Tree International, launched last year by Andreas Rothbauer and Alec Schulman.

Veteran distributor Pim van Collem’s international licensing company and producers’ representation Dutch Features Global Entertainment will also make its market debut as well as Nicolas Eschbach’s Paris-based Indie Sales, which made its bow at Cannes’ Marché du Film last May.

EFM will also play host to Laurence Schonberg and Olivier Albou’s sales company Other Angle Pictures whose line-up ranges from Eric Barbier’s Le Dernier Diamant to Claude Duty’s Chez nous, c’est trois.

UK-based Saradan Media, who is handling the Chechnya-set thriller Viktor (aka Turquoise) starring Gerard Depardieu and Elizabeth Hurley, will also be at the market as well as Madrid-based Colette Aguilar’s Moonrise Pictures, which will share a stand with Destiny Entertainment.

Russian cinema will again be represented by two different stands at the Martin Gropius Bau and Marriott - RU.C Russian Cinema and Roskino - while the Romanian Film Center (CNC) will take over representing Romanian cinema at the EFM this year from Romanian Film Promotion, which had organised the stand in the Martin Gropius Bau since 2007.

The US presence at Berlin’s market will be boosted in 2014 by, among others, the recently launched international theatrical film and television sales and acquisition division of producer-director Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment, headed by ex-Global Screen executive Sonia Mehandjiyska.

Independent Hollywood sales and distribution company House of Film will be operating from an office with Multivisionnaire Pictures

Rio kick-off

This year’s EFM will also serve as the launchpad for Films From Rio, which will be a platform for up to 10 producers from the Brazilian metropolis to present their films and promote the Brazlian city as a location for international shoots and co-productions.

Films From Rio is organised by the Rio producers association SICAV, the film fund RioFilme, the Rio Film Festival/RioMarket and the Rio Film Commission, among others.

New initiatives

EFM today announced the so-called Catch-Up Screenings on the market’s penultimate day (Feb 13) when festival section heads will present a selection of this year’s programme for registered EFM participants.

In addition, the market is looking to forge closer links with the festival’s Berlinale Talents (previously known as the Berlinale Talent Campus) by setting up a booth at the Martin Gropius Bau under the banner Berlinale Talents Market Hub.

Ten newcomer distributors from this year’s Berlinale Talents lineup will be use this booth as a contact and meeting point.

Furthermore, 40 of the films developed during the Berlinale Talents Project Labs will be presented to EFM delegates.