News - Berlinale Co-Production Market

BCPM 2025: 35 Fresh Film Projects to Meet International Co-producers

For the 22nd Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 15-19), 35 film projects from 27 countries have been selected to find partners, in order to secure their financing and get produced as international co-productions in the next few years. 19 of the 35 projects are directed by women.

The official project selection consists of 19 fiction feature projects with budgets between 600,000 and five million Euros being chosen from among 351 submissions. Among the award-winning directors whose new works are sure to spark interest are Ayşe Polat, Tatiana Huezo, Carolina Markowicz, Wissam Charaf, Kamila Andini, Zarrar Kahn, Kirsten Tan, Radu Muntean, Kaan Müjdeci, Ainhoa Rodríguez, Andrea Staka, Miia Tervo and Maksym Nakonechnyi.

Two film projects are looking for partners at both CineMart Rotterdam and the Berlinale Co-Production Market as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express. In the World Cinema Market section, the WCF-funded project I'm Coming For You by Cyrielle Raingou will be presented.

In the Talent Project Market, which is organised in cooperation with Berlinale Talents, ten producers from all over the world who are still in the first decade of their careers will present their latest projects, having been selected from 203 submissions.

This time, the five companies in the Company Matching programme include some companies spanning more than one country: they are hailing from Germany, Indonesia, Poland, USA and Japan as well as Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana; participants can request individual meetings with these companies in order to discuss structural ideas, or work on the basis of project slates.

The selected projects and companies can be seen here.

The Co-Pro Series and Books at Berlinale selections 2025 will be announced shortly.

"Co-Pro Series" 2025: Ten Exciting Selected Series

On 18 and 19 February, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will again be dedicated to Co-Pro Series: producers, editors, distributors and other series financiers will take part in the industry's highly renowned pitch event. Co-Pro Series is curated and organised by the Berlinale Co-Production Market and is also part of the Berlinale Series Market programme (Feb 16-19).

Awarded creators and directors like Fernando Meirelles, Charlotte Sieling, Jennifer Fox, Julian Pörksen, David Wagner or Tereza Nvotová are attached to some of the outstanding projects. Ten top-quality series projects from European countries, Brazil, the US, Canada, and New Zealand are looking for suitable co-producers, distribution and broadcasting partners, and financiers among the international industry. After the pitches, the producers of the projects met interested potential partners at a get-together and in individual meetings.

The "Co-Pro Series" selection can be found here, along with all selected projects of the Berlinale Co-Production Market

Books at Berlinale” 2025: Ten Great Books to Adapt

At theBooks at Berlinale Pitch, Networking and Matchmaking Event on 17 February, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse, presented ten exceptional examples of literary material that lend themselves to adaptation. At the pitch event, which has been spotlighting new publications and bestsellers every year since 2006, film producers can get in contact with the film rights holders – renowned, internationally active publishers and booksellers. The presentation of the books by publishers and literary agencies is hosted by Syd Atlas.

The selected books will be presented to 150 guests on the stage of the Berlinale Co-Production Market at Octogon at Leipziger Platz, moderated by author Syd Atlas.

In total, publishers and literary agencies submitted almost 120 works for this year's edition of Books at Berlinale. The authors of the ten selected books come from Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines and Switzerland.This year, genre books are particularly well represented in the selection.

The “Books at Berlinale” selection 2025 can be found here.

CoPro Podcast Episode 2024: Company Strategies Today

We had the pleasure of preparing a new episode of the Industry Insights Podcast, together with our colleagues from the EFM.

n this episode, the Berlinale Co-Production Market invites two experienced producers to share their innovative strategies as part of a film industry in flux and how they address the changes of their own roles. Didar Domehri, producer and founder of Maneki Film and Maneki Stories, and Roman Paul, producer and co-founder of Razor Film Produktion, join forces to discuss the need for both, flexibility and collaboration while maintaining one’s own outstanding focus as an independent producer

Find the podcast here

Calls & Applications & Deadlines

Timeline and links for our 2025 edition (Feb 15-19, 2025):

Closed: July-September 4: submissions open for the Talent Project Market in cooperation with Berlinale Talents. 10 projects will be selected for the Talent Project Market 2025. Find more information here

Closed: August 14 to September 18: Call for the Official Selection: Experienced producers from all over the world could submit their new feature-length fiction projects with a budget range from 1 to 20 million Euros, with at least 30% of financing (or the local production funding) already in place, for which they are seeking international co-production and financing partners. Ca. 20 of them will be selected and presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2025. More info and link to the online submission for feature projects for the Official Selection.

Closed: August 14 to October 1: Co-Pro Series: Drama series projects in development and financing stages can be submitted for Co-Pro Series. A selection of 10 projects will be presented at the Co-Pro Series Pitch and Networking event. Further information and link to the online submission for drama series projects for Co-Pro Series.

Closed: Sep/Oct to November 12: Books at Berlinale: literary agents and publishers can submit novels for Books at Berlinale, to be held in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse during the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Find out more here

Closed: producers, financiers, sales agents, distributors, representatives of funds, TV channels and VOD platforms looking for projects, can apply to participate at the Berlinale Co-Production Market without a project.

Open: producers interested in attending Books at Berlinale can still apply to attend by February 7.

Berlinale Co-Production Market

Potsdamer Platz 11, D-10785 Berlin

coproductionmarket@berlinale.de

21 previous projects were selected to A-list Film Festivals in 2023: September saw the Venice competition premiere of Holly by Fien Troch, as well as Toronto premieres of Sisterhood (HLM Pussy) by Nora El Hourch, andToll by Carolina Markowicz. San Sebastian will show Toll, as well as Puán by Benjamin Naishtat and María Alche. Three projects showed at Karlovy Vary, of which Imago by Olga Chajdas won a Fipresci Prize.

Three previous projects of the Berlinale Co-Production Market premiered at Cannes 2023: Lost Country by Vladimir Perisic (France, Serbia, Croatia, Luxembourg), and Levante by Lillah Halla (Brazil, Uruguay, France), were both awarded as part of Critics' Week. In Flames by Zarrar Khan (Canada, Pakistan) screened at Quinzaine des Cinéastes.

Five films that were once presented as projects were selected for the Berlinale 2023: Silver Bear winner 20,000 Species of Bees by Estibaliz Urresola in Competition, Matria by Alvaro Gago and The Siren by Sepideh Farsi in Panorama, and Sea Sparkle by Domien Huyghe as well as Tomorrow Is a Long Time by Jow Zhi Wei in Generation.

Two co-productions were awarded in Sundance 2023: Slow by Maria Kavtaradze and When it Melts by Veerle Baetens.Four Litttle Adults by Selma Vilhunen premiered in Rotterdam.

Co-Pro Series projects Trom, Eldorado KaDeWe, and Good People are also among the recent successes.

In 2022, for the second year in a row, the Golden Bear at the Berlinale went to a former Berlinale Co-Production Market project: Alcarràs by Carla Simón. Three previous projects were Academy Award-shortlisted, and the animated documentary Flee was triple-nominated.Rule 34 by Julia Murat, presented here as a project in 2019, won the Golden Leopard at Locarno.

Further premieres in 2022 include the animated Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Pierre Földes at Annecy and Toronto, Blanquita by Fernando Guzzoni at Venice Orizzonti and Autobiography by Makbul Mubarak at Venice Orizzonti and Toronto Contemporary World Cinema.

2021 was also an exciting year: After a Golden Bear in February for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn by Radu Jude and three further co-productions at the Berlinale, five films screened at Cannes, of whichCompartment No. 6 by Juho Kuosmanen shared the Grand Prize of the Jury, three films screened in Venice. Wolf by Nathalie Biancheri was one of 3 previous projects showing at Toronto. Hinterland by Stefan Ruzowitzky won the Audience Award in Locarno. Two Co-Pro Series projects premiered in competition at Series Mania - Furia (Norway/Germany) and the winner Blackport (Iceland/UK).

Two of our previous projects were shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Film in 2021:Quo Vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Zbanic, which also got nominated, and had premiered at Venice last year, and Charlatan by Agnieszka Holland, which was part of the Berlinale Competition 2020.

Find the complete list of realised films in the archive

CoPro Podcast Episode 2023: Co-Production Strategies for Drama Series Today

We had the pleasure of preparing a new episode of the Industry Insights Podcast, together with our colleagues from the EFM.

This episode focuses on current producing strategies in the drama series landscape after the TV-series boom of the last decade. Hosted by Johanna Koljonen, guest speakers Ankica Jurić Tilić and Marike Muselaers share their experiences in financing drama series, their take on the current market landscape as well as financing strategies for producers in different parts of Europe, and explain how co-productions may play an increasing role today.

Find the podcast here.

CoPro Podcast Episode with Ewa Puszczynska

We had the pleasure to help prepare our colleagues' podcast, EFM Industry Insights.

For episode Number 6, we checked in with producer Ewa Puszczynska, who is not only a regular at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, but also known for Academy Award-winning Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski, as well as Berlinale films like Kill it and Leave this Town by Mariusz Wilczynski (Encounters 2020) or as a co-producer of the Academy Award-nominated Quo Vadis, Aida?

Moderator Johanna Koljonen spoke with Ewa about her own, very personal approach to life as a producer and to the art of film. Find it here.