娱乐英语新闻:Berlin Film Festival ignites hope for "global film warming"

BERLIN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- This year's European Film Market (EFM)'s forecast for Asia, the crisis and technical trends in 2010 seems to be warming up.

While moviegoers sludge their way through ice and snow to catch a glimpse of new films at the Berlin Film Festival, there is one area of this year's 60th Anniversary Festival that finally has a little hope for sun on the horizon.

"When I look at the numbers, we are doing very well," EFM director Bekki Probst told Xinhua. "We have almost 700 films in the market this year."

The EFM was established in 1978 under the name Film Fair as the financial and commercial division of the Berlin Film Festival.

People line up to buy tickets for the upcoming Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, February 8, 2010.

As the first market event of the year, EFM acts as an international film thermometer, gauging what kinds of financial and thematic film trends are beginning to build.

"I read the trade papers a lot. I know China is having a big film boom," Probst said. "In the past, we used to deal only with the China Film Group, now we have independent companies coming."

Probst recently began collaborative talks with the Shanghai Film Festival.

Ida Martins, the director of world wide distribution for Media Luna New Films, whose Hong Kong film "Amphetamine" is playing in the panorama this year, gave Xinhua her view on the state of filmmaking in Asia. There are very exciting films coming out from Hong Kong and mainland of China. There's a lot of creativity there, she said.

Each year, films from the global market are brought to the EFM in the hope of finding a distributor, a buyer, a producer or a sales agent. A large number of those films come directly from the festival.

This year, Zhang Yimou's film, "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop," which is playing as one of two Chinese films in competition, has sold some territorial distribution deals at the 2010 EFM.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou (C), actor Sun Honglei (L) and actress Yan Ni arrives for the premiere of the film "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" at the 60th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 14, 2010

Main Program and Competition films, including Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right" and Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg" are also working the market this year.

The number of registered companies on the floor of the Martin Gropius Bau and the Marriott totals 410, up from last year's 408.

When asked about the financial comparison to last year's EFM, Probst said, "There was a big crisis last year, no one can deny that. This year's motto is flexibility and patience."

While seas of frenzied buyers and film producers moved quickly about this year's Market floor, taking meetings and waiting to see distributors, the mood appeared a little less patient, but hopeful overall.

Richard Ross, an American buyer for Breaking Glass Pictures, has been coming to the Berlin Film Festival and EFM for 10 years. "The EFM is the most important market of the year for us," Ross told Xinhua. "Last year at the 2009 market, you could feel the gloom and doom. This year, heads seem a little higher, people are looking towards a brighter future."

The EFM is also a symbol of the changing tides in film and technical trends. This year, 11 3D films will be screened in the swank Astor Lounge cinema.

When asked why the change to the hi-tech cinema at the EFM, Probst said, "we saw it coming last year."

Her response to whether or not this was the beginning of the end of non-3D features, she smirked and said, "Do you think this year's opening film, "Apart Together," will be in 3D next year? I don't think so and I hope not!"