EFM Head Tanja Meissner Talks Importance Of Berlinale Selection; the AFM, Keeping Up With AI, Package Biz & Market’s Expanding Remit

Tanja Meissner is gearing up for her first edition as head of the Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM), running from February 13 to 19.

Over the course of seven days, Europe’s biggest film market after Cannes will host some 230 exhibitors from 80 territories.

Around 12,000 professionals from more than 140 countries are expected to attend with Germany, the U.S., France, Spain (which is the country of honor) and the U.K., the biggest territories in attendance. New exhibitors will include New Zealand, Singapore, Jordan and Azerbaijan.

Meissner’s arrival at the EFM comes amid choppy times on the international film market circuit, topped by uncertainty over the future of the American Film Market (AFM), and curiosity over how Toronto’s promise of a market revamp in 2026 will pan out.

Last week’s announcement that the AFM would be returning to L.A. met with approval from U.S. professionals, after its ill-fated sojourn in Las Vegas last November.

Back in Europe, small to medium sized sales companies, who have long since stopped attending the AFM due to the cost, are increasingly discussing the lack of a fully-fledged fall market in the region to mop up sales on films launched at the late summer to early fall festivals.

Former sales agent and AFM regular Meissner says she is too soon into her new role to assess whether this dynamic is having a knock-on effect on the EFM.

“I also haven’t been at the AFM since 2019 so I can’t make an informed analysis… From my perspective as a sales agent, it really depends on the type of film or project, but it’s also true some of the European sales agents simply can’t afford to go to the AFM,” she says.

“We’ll see how it develops. I always thought it was really complementary and would be sad if that wasn’t the case, so I wish them the best.”

She suggests that the EFM’s place in the calendar still works as the first major market of the year, for both films sales and packaging. Quizzed on whether the EFM would consider running initiatives to support the packaging business, Meissner says it is not currently on the cards but does not rule it out.

“The EFM timing is very beneficial for announcements, that’s true, but it’s also true that we’re a service platform. We don’t have to substitute the job of the sales agents. They know best when and how to launch a project. It’s quite organic, but it could be something for the future.”

On the completed film sales front, driven by the festival selection, the market has been broadly positive about Tricia Tuttle’s inaugural line-up and Meissner is upbeat too.

Tuttle told Deadline in interview after the main line-up announcement that she had created the new second competitive section, Perspectives, focused on first features, partly with the market in mind, hoping these films by emerging talents would create strong buzz.

Meissner, who has yet to see much of this selection, approves of the move, citing her own experiences. “I’ve done significant business on first timers, especially at Memento, so I imagine it can create some business,” she says.

She also praises Tuttle’s grasp of what is at stake: “It’s super important to have a director of the festival who understands the market needs. It’s key. The market and the festival are interdependent. If the films are strong in the Official Selection are strong it will translate into significant business.”

Meissner is unique among current film market directors for her perspective on the circuit having worked as a film sales agent for two decades, firstly for Celluloid Dreams and then Memento.

But the German-French industry veteran is keen to highlight her wider credentials as she talks to Deadline about her inaugural edition.

“My new role brings together everything that I’m passionate about and have been cultivating over the years, having worked in various capacities in the industry,” she says.

“I started out as an intern at the Berlinale in 1995 and then I was a press agent with Richard Lormand,” she continues, referring to the late much-loved film publicist who handled a raft of Palme d’Or, Golden Lion and Golden Bear winners across his career.  “I have a 360-degree perspective.”

Taking up the role in May, under the official title of Director of Berlinale Pro, Meissner also has oversight on all the festival’s industry-related initiatives, spanning Berlinale Talents, the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the World Cinema Fund.

The new umbrella grouping, she explains, has been created to integrate these strands more closely to keep them relevant to the film and TV industries and better serve their professionals in a rapidly chasing landscape.

“We want to be more than a market,” says Meissner. “To be clear, the sellers and the buyers, are at the heart of the EFM, they have the pole position, so to speak, but we have a large number of other professionals that have also come to the market, including a lot of producers.”

Meissner’s incoming priority beyond ensuring an environment that supports transactional business, has been fostering opportunities for learning and networking

She points to the new Innovation Hub, which will take over the second floor of EFM’s main Gropius Bau venue, as an example of this. The space will showcase cutting edge technologies and AI solutions.

“Being a producer has become a lot more complex… Movie-making craft was once about one thing and now it’s about mastering a lot of tools,” says Meissner.

Alongside companies showcasing new technology and AI solutions, panels and workshops are being laid on under the umbrella of the parallel Producers Hub.

Danish company Publikum will give a talk on how to build an audience using AI; Microsoft is holding an event on the art of AI prompting and producers body EAVE is running a workshop on their AI playbook.

“We need to find the right balance between innovation and being mindful about copyright protection as well,” says Meissner.

“There’s also this huge ethical problem around AI so we will be talking about that too. It’s still polarizing. I’m not diminishing how dangerous it can, but we need to a keep balance between them.”

The European Parliament is holding one such session in the wider EFM Industry Sessions program, presenting the European Union’s AI Act and its findings on how the technology is reshaping the region’s audiovisual landscape.

The wider five-day industry program encompasses discussions on hot topic industry issues such as gender equality and representation, film production case studies, territory focuses, project showcases and masterclasses, with the more than 100 speakers including CAA’s Roeg Sutherland, Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Picturehouse’s Clare Binns.

On the networking front, Meissner has also spearheaded the launch of the new daily Breakfast Club, Happy Innovation Hour, Buyers Happy Hour and the DocSalon Apéros

Other innovations include the new €5,000 Gen Z Audience Award at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, showcasing 35 projects in search of finance. It will be judged by a Franco-German jury of film students, who will designate the project they consider to be the most attractive for young cinema-goers between the ages of 20 and 28.

“We also want to stay culturally relevant and that’s why it’s important to me to have the next generation feel welcome… and to get their fresh perspective. Everybody speaks about the young audience and questions can we bring it back to the cinemas. One way is by addressing them on how we conceive films at a very early stage,” she says.

Meissner is also proud to have launched the new EFM Distributor Award.  Sponsored by Dutch film and TV rights management company Fintage House, the €7.5k ($7.8k) will fete a distributor who has made a significant and sustained contribution to arthouse distribution in recent years.

“It’s a way of showing recognition for an often-undervalued profession,” she says.  “Economically and politically, distributors make a meaningful contribution to the ecosystem, but while there are a lot of incentives for production there is a real need for improved infrastructure around distribution support. Films don’t exist when they don’t have an audience.”

The three-person jury consists of Natalie Jeung at French sales company Kinolgy, Kim Foss at Danish distributor Camera Film and Leila Hamid at Germany’s X-Verleih.

On the logistics front, the market has added a screening venue at the University of Applied Sciences across the street from the Gropius Bau, which joins six other venues including the CinemaxX cinema, Marriott Studio and the Gropius Bau Cinema.

“We know how important screenings are and we really try to accommodate everyone. Sometimes it’s only one screening, sometimes it’s more,” says Meissner.

She notes that the EFM has also sought to keep rein in fee increases for stands and screenings, even if the market is facing inflationary costs around everything from energy costs to the hiring of furniture.

“In 2023, the EFM took into account that everybody was heavily impacted by the pandemic and didn’t raise prices, while our costs have risen by 30, 40%,” says Meissner. “It was an important step for my colleague Peter [Head of Sales Peter Domsch] to say he wanted to keep the prices at a competitive level, and we still have this year.”

The EFM has attempted to deal with rising costs, she explains, by reducing equipment in the booths or suggesting simpler structures, such as taking out the back office, for example, which reduces the build price.

“We have adjusted and partially reduced the stand prices per square meter and at the same time slightly reduced the included articles so that our customers do not have any additional costs for the time being,” she said.

“After the high price increases in all areas of production, it was clear that we had to find a solution together and at the same time not make access to the market more expensive.”