For the 20th Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 18-22), 33 film projects from 26 countries have been chosen to find partners in order to secure funding and production as international co-productions in the coming years. Women are in charge of 17 of the 33 projects.

The official project selection consists of 17 fiction feature projects with budgets between 600,000 and five million Euros being chosen from among 302 submissions. Leonie Krippendorff, Natalia Smirnoff, Ioana Uricaru, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, Muayad Alayan and Gustavo Pizzi are just some of the names in directing that should arouse film lovers’ curiosity about their upcoming films.

In the Berlinale Directors section, there are an additional three projects in the early stages of financing, whose directors – Caru Alves de Souza, Maria Solrun, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha – have already shown successful films at the festival. Two film projects are looking for partners at both CineMart Rotterdam and the Berlinale Co-Production Market as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express.

New in 2023 is the World Cinema Market section: in cooperation with the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, the WCF-funded project Los Ángeles by the two directors and visual artists Joaquin Cociña and Cristóbal León from Chile will be presented here.

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 166 submissions. They are also looking for international partners. In addition to feature films, there is also a documentary film project by the Swedish directing duo Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinikainen, who presented Always Amber in the Panorama section in 2020.

The companies in the Company Matching programme come from Chile, Estonia, the Philippines, Ukraine, Austria and Luxembourg, and participants can request individual meetings with them to exchange ideas on a structural level, or on the basis of project slates.

“Rebellion, not allowing oneself to be marginalised, or consciously setting oneself apart from the norm; the empowerment of minorities in the face of war, colonialism and conservatism, and dealing with gentrification and climate change ― we have read many, often courageous projects whose bold approaches address such topics. Things will certainly be colourful and varied at our 20th anniversary: coming-of-age at all ages, film noir, horror, absurd comedies and wild genre mixes on queer topics, as well as a powerful dose of feminism are included in the selection, and we hope to contribute successfully to these new films being seen in cinemas soon,” in the words of the Berlinale Co-Production Market director, Martina Bleis.

In the coming weeks, the Berlinale Co-Production Market team will organise more than 1,500 individual meetings during the Berlinale, where the producers of the selected projects and companies will meet potential international co-producers, world sales agents, representatives of broadcasters, funding bodies, streaming platforms, film distributors and other financing partners from all over the world.

In the 20 years since it began, over 340 films have already been made from the projects of the highly successful Berlinale Co-Production Market. Among others, the last two winners of the Golden Bear, Alcarràs (2022) and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021), looked for partners here before shooting, in order to secure their realisation. Oscar winners such as A Fantastic Woman by Sebastián Lelio and Jojo Rabbit by Taika Waititi are among the former projects, just like Quo Vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić, Force Majeure by Ruben Östlund and The Babadook by Jennifer Kent.

Already, three films that were presented as projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market and have been realised together with international co-production partners, have been confirmed in the programme of the Berlinale 2023: the animated film La Sirène (The Siren) by Sepideh Farsi in the Panorama section, as well as Tomorrow is a Long Time by Jow Zhi Wei and Sea Sparkle by Domien Huyghe, both screening in Generation.

Here is the official selection of projects for the 2023 Berlinale Co-Production Market:

Amoeba – Siyou Tan
Producer: Akanga Film Asia (Singapore)

The Blindsight – Ruslan Batytskyi
Producer: 2Brave Productions (Ukraine)

Butterfly – Itonje Søimer Guttormsen
Producer: Mer Film (Norway)

Cheaper Than Stealing – Pedro Collantes
Producers: Sideral Cinema (Elamedia Studios), Mizar Films (Spain/France)

Everything That’s Wrong with You – Urša Menart
Producer: Vertigo (Slovenia)

God Bless You – Gustavo Pizzi
Producers: Bubbles Project, Baleia Filmes (Brazil)

Hasse – Jan Matthys
Producer: Bulletproof Cupid (Belgium)

I’ll Be Gone in June – Katharina Rivilis
Producer: Road Movies (Germany)

Iván & Hadoum – Ian de la Rosa
Producer: Avalon PC (Spain)

Ivy – Catarina Mourão
Producer: O Som e a Fúria (Portugal)

Mārama – Taratoa Stappard
Producer: Sweetshop & Green (New Zealand)

O Little Town of Bethlehem – Muayad Alayan
Producer: PalCine Productions (Palestine)

Pastoral Pathways – Ahmet Necdet Çupur
Producers: Les Films du Poisson, NiKo Film, Liman Film (France/Germany/Turkey)

Peeled Skin – Leonie Krippendorff
Producer: Kineo Filmproduktion (Germany)

Roger on the Loose – Natalia Smirnoff
Producer: Año Cero (Argentina)

Skiff – Cecilia Verheyden
Producer: Mirage (Belgium)

Tales from the Golden Age 3 – Ioana Uricaru
Producers: Mobra Films, 42 Film (Romania/Germany)

Berlinale Directors

Buran – Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha
Producer: Hobab (Sweden)

Lonely Hearts – Caru Alves de Souza
Producer: Manjericão Filmes (Brazil)

Night Sweat – Maria Solrun
Producer: Wunderlust (Germany)

World Cinema Market

Los Ángeles – Joaquin Cociña, Cristóbal León
Producers: Globo Rojo Films, Autentika Films (Chile/Germany)

Rotterdam-Berlinale Express

Brace Yourself – Thati Pele
Producer: Urucu (South Africa)

The Burning Giants – Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Producers: Diversion, 13 Little Pictures (Thailand/Singapore)

Company Matching Programme

Amour Fou Vienna/Amour Fou Luxembourg (Austria/Luxembourg)
Amrion Production (Estonia)
Epicmedia (Philippines)
ForeFilms (Ukraine)
Quijote Films (Chile)