Normally, our German Films colleagues from Munich would be busy setting up their booth at the TIFF Industry Centre at the Hyatt on King Street right now, with the first, early guests stopping by to say hi and grab a brochure. Not this year. But the work hasn't stopped. I spoke to the new head of German Films, Simone Baumann, about what to expect in terms of film promotion and the market:
Jutta Brendemuhl:
TIFF2020 is happening, but all industry events have moved online, which for you means no booth at the Industry Centre with walk-up traffic or scheduled one-on-one meetings, no parties, physical producer meetings or pitch sessions, no red carpets and interviews with actors and filmmakers, nor coincidental hallway chats that lead to next projects. How are you pivoting your strategy to reach your target groups in the international festival circuit this year?
Simone Baumann: The COVID crisis hit us like everybody else totally unexpected.
It is interestingly speeding up processes that had been underway for a while. In terms of promotion, we are reevaluating all of our activities and trying to make up our minds what is the most efficient way to reach our audience in these conditions.
There is a lot of trial and error! What we do see is that for the industry part of markets and festivals, going partly online is working very well – like pitching sessions, master classes, presentations, round tables and conferences etc. The future we will see a lot of hybrid formats. The advantage of online is less travel (good for the climate plus it saves time), but it also allows better access to these events for creatives and talents from far away and from poorer regions.
Of course ours remains a people business. For professionals who have been in the business for many years and have their network, this situation is easier to manage. It is very difficult for first timers. How can they get to know people, make contacts? Also from a sales perspective you need the personal contact and the conversations -- you need physical festivals with all the premiere atmosphere, the press and the buzz around the films, especially for the sales of arthouse films -- they need a “real” festival, that's the way to promote them and to get them into the market.
So for the future we will probably see a lot of hybrid events in terms of industry, but still a strong festival world, keeping cinema alive, bringing films and talents to their audiences and creating a community.
JB:
Out of a 90% reduction in overall programming, Germany has half a dozen international co-productions at TIFF2020, plus Werner Herzog's latest doc (a UK/Austrian/Apple collaboration). Kate Winslet starrer "Ammonite" is scored by Dusseldorf's Volker Bertelmann, and Wim Wenders is Festival Ambassador. How do you as Germany's international film marketing agency evaluate that outcome and how do you harness it?
SB: From a German Films point of view, we are first of all promoting majority German Films – looking at it that way, we have not a single film in this 50-film TIFF edition. That honestly was a bit disappointing and reinforces an unfortunately pretty North America-driven approach. But we have a number of co-productions we're very happy with: Gianfranco Rosi's "Notturno" in the Masters program, "Gaza Mon Amour" by Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser in Discovery, "Bandar Band" by Manijeh Hekmat runs in Contemporary World Cinema alongside Jasmila Žbanić's "Quo Vadis, Aida".
JB:
What are the new German titles you will be featuring in TIFF's industry section and why are they attractive for the North American or global market?
SB:
At the moment we have five market screenings planned. I would really like Julia von Heinz' hard-hitting “girl power” political drama “And tomorrow the entire World” to get a lot of attention – the film was chosen to premiere in the Venice Festival main competition and was selected by TIFF. We will be introducing Johannes Naber's political satire "Curveball", which premiered and received great reviews at the Berlinale 2020. "Rivale" by Marcus Lenz will have its premiere at a big festival in fall 2020. Plus we're bringing in the comedy drama "God you're such a prick" by André Erkau and "Neubau" by Johannes Maria Schmit, which won the Max Ophüls Prize for Best Feature this year. We think that all of these films have a good chance in the North American market.
JB:
What will you miss most about not being able to physically attend TIFF?
SB: I became managing director of German Films just last year so TIFF19 was my first TIFF (I had been in Toronto many times before – mostly at HotDocs). I will miss that festival atmosphere, the possibility to meet people – especially from the US and Canada. I will sorely miss the social events like our traditional party with the Goethe-Institut! And of course I will miss watching some of this brilliant films together with the great Toronto audience, that is a special experience you can't get online.
JB:
Biggest trepidation about and biggest hope for a 2021 recovery:
SB: At the moment it is difficult to say anything precise about 2021. The whole entertainment world is changing in a radical way, and we likely have to live with COVID restrictions for another year or even longer. So my hope is that most of festivals will be able to adapt creatively to the new situation! The Berlinale has just announced that they plan to happen physically -- still likely pre-vaccine so likely to run like other festivals: with less films, premieres in the main competitions, and screenings aimed mainly at the local audience. I envision the Berlinale 2021 to happen similarly to TIFF – just bigger and with a hybrid market, meaning online conferences but face-to-face sales meetings (if perhaps not for all regions because of lingering travel restrictions). That would be my current pre-TIFF prediction. I believe the message behind a physical festival announcement is really important for many filmmakers, who can only see their films released at a "real" festival.
Simone Baumann, Managing Director of German Films, has been working in film production for over 25 years and has produced numerous documentaries and feature films. Previously, she was the head of the documentary department of Saxonia Entertainment GmbH and the managing director of the independent production company LE VISION. She is an experienced co-producer, and one of Europe's leading experts on Russia, the former Eastern bloc, and their audiovisual markets.
In April 2019 Simone Baumann was appointed Managing Director of German Films, the German film promotion agency. She had been working with them as their Eastern Europe representative since 2005.
image: German Films/Goethe-Institut: Nicole Kaufmann and Simone Baumann of German Films, with Goethe-Institut Toronto Program Curator Jutta Brendemühl at the German TIFF Party 2019
