New formats have framed EFP’s projects during the pandemic. EFP looks back on an exciting year and is facing the future with optimism and new tools.
“2021 was another 'other' year. We are grateful that in this situation we were in the position to react quickly and in an unbureaucratic way. Our networks, in particular Creative Europe, and our partners were key in these rather challenging times. EFP’s toolbox is ready for 2022: we’ve reshaped collaborations, created digital homes for events and online meeting spaces for talent and the industry, organized well-attended public talks for the industry online and professionalized mailings to international distributors and festival programmers to promote the best of European cinema all over the world. Depending on the situation, we are equipped to shift our promotion work between online, physical or hybrid”, says EFP’s Managing Director Sonja Heinen.
EFP has developed two new sustainable and flexible tools in 2021 from so-called emergency formats: the EUROPE! CALLS offer a series of regular online sessions with national film promotion institutes and key international industry including festival & market directors, distributors, sales agents, producers and international marketing experts providing real time advice on an evolving landscape, marketing issues and best practices; the EUROPE! SHOWCASES are straightforward online promotion sessions for selected films, talent and sales companies addressing respective target groups (buyers, producers, press, casting directors, general industry) prior to related festivals.
With the goal to increase the circulation of European films and connect the European industry worldwide, EFPs’ programmes for European cinema span from promoting talent and films to the backing of industry-related activities thus covering the whole value chain. They are interwoven in ways which support and complement each other to the benefit of the participants. SHOOTING STARS meet the PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE; PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE are introduced to the directors of FUTURE FRAMES; the SHOOTING STARS films are sold by European sales companies who can apply to EFP for Film Sales Support. The impact of EFP's activities is best measured by results of the initiatives over the long-term and the feedback of the selected talent.