Berlinale 2021: Producers' Brunch on 09.03.2021 with Dr. Martin Schaefer as host

For ten years now, the Producers’ Brunch has had a fixed place in the Berlinale schedule. For the first time, the pandemic prevented a presence event this year. The organisers, which have included BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT from the beginning, did not want to let the tradition die and decided on a virtual form of the event.

Shortly after the end of the Online Berlinale 2021, the Producers’ Brunch took place on 9 March from 10.00 to 11.30 a.m. under the patronage of “media:net berlinbrandenburg” as a live stream on YouTube and Facebook. In line with the current problems, the topic “Windowing and Covid-19: Other exploitation windows in film?” was on the agenda of a competent panel of film producers and lawyers.

In the virtual panel discussion, attorney at law and BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner Dr. Martin Schaefer, as moderator, led through a lively and partly controversial discussion between Christine Berg as representative of the association of cinema operators HDF, Katharina Hiersemenzel from Constantin Film AG, who contributed in particular the perspective of the distributor, as well as Christian Sommer, the German representative of the Motion Picture Association, an association in which the major Hollywood studios are represented. The question of making the blocking periods under the Film Subsidies Act more flexible was discussed, as was the question of the future of classical cinema in a time of growing diversity of series and film formats in streaming services. The debate showed that it could be useful to bring the complexity of the current situation to the attention of political decision-makers in ministries and parliaments from within the industry – on a similarly broad basis as in the Producers’ Brunch.