Martin Scorsese was at theBerlinalethis week for the first time in a decade.
His presence to collect an honorary Golden Bear was a reminder of the festivals glories of yesteryear.
In recent years the studio splashes have dried up.
Carlo Chatrian, Mariette Rissenbeek and Tricia TuttleGetty Images
So have memorable movies from A-list arthouse filmmakers.
Programming Woes
The festival has a devoted public fan-base.
It remains one of the worlds best attended, drawing in around half a million admissions every year.
We need the bigger titles.
Cinema is also about entertainment.
U.S. execsfocused on packagingare mixed on the standing of festivals European Film Market (EFM).
The AFM kind of closes things for us, then you have the holidays and January to settle-up.
Berlin is a good mid-point for us, said one exec.
Theyre in the final days of their campaign.
There has to be a very good reason for them to make the trip, they said.
Deadline has contacted the festival for comment.
Talking toDeadlineabout her and Chatrians track-record, Rissenbeek said the Covid-19 pandemic had thrown a spanner in the works.
There was no continuity.
That made it a very different job from the one we had expected when we came on board.
We have 237 films this year, including the retrospective, against 281 last year.
We started with around 400 films and every year we reduced a little bit.
Its a false economy.
His replacement has yet to be announced.
This exec suggested that Tuttles status as an outsider might work in her favor.
Its good that its not somebody from the German-speaking realm, and rather the English-speaking world.
That was the challenge for Mariette coming from [export agency] German Films.
People here already had expectations and prejudices and that didnt help, he said.
It was a sticking point for many when it came to Chatrian.
How many A-list festivals are run by people who cant speak the local language?
one distribution vet mused.
