Mariette Rissenbeek On Her Berlinale Exit, The Festival’s Tricky Financial Future & How The Actors Strike May Be A Win For Berlin — Locarno

Zac Ntim
·8 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Outgoing Berlinale co-director Mariette Rissenbeek shared a surprising statement during an industry keynote this week at Locarno.

She said the festival, one of the calendar’s biggest European film events, had to increase its operating budget by 10-15%. In cash figures, this would mean an increase from around €29 million to €34-€35 million to mount the festival. Rissenbeek, however, said she currently saw no way for the festival to raise this cash.

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“Four million is a lot of money,” she told Deadline the morning after the keynote.

So what happens to the Berlinale? Below, Rissenbeek talked to Deadline about the festival’s financial struggles, why she is struggling to plug the cash hole, and what could be in store for the future of Berlinale.

The industry veteran also discussed why she has decided to step back from her role as Berlinale executive director. In March, Rissenbeek announced that she would be stepping down from the role after the 2024 edition of the festival. She was announced as co-head in 2018 alongside Carlo Chatrian in the role of artistic director. They both assumed posts in June 2019. She was the first woman to head up the Berlin Film Festival.

Rissenbeek also touched on the current SAG-AFTRA strike, which she suggested could play out in favor of Berlinale’s 2024 program, and the criticism the festival faced in 2023 following the publication of a public letter from Afro-German Film Collective Schwarze Filmschaffende, which loosely translates to Black Filmmakers. The widely shared open letter said the festival had programmed three “anti-black” films.

DEADLINE: During yesterday’s keynote, you said Berlinale’s budget would need to increase between 10-15%, from around €29 million to €34 – €35 million. What exactly are these rising costs?

MARIETTE RISSENBEEK: A lot of this is personnel costs. Almost 1/3 of our budget is personnel. As we receive government money, we have to pay salaries according to the union’s rates. So every year, salaries increase automatically. This makes it very difficult to control costs unless you let personnel go. Otherwise, your personnel budget is rising every year. And then we have a lot of technical support for the cinemas alongside cinema rent. Building the red carpet also costs a lot of money. All of these services are more expensive, and because they’re all external, they’re super difficult to control.

DEADLINE: Yesterday, you also said you can’t see any way Berlinale could finance this extra cash. 

RISSENBEEK: Well, four million is a lot of money.

DEADLINE: So what happens to Berlinale?

RISSENBEEK: I’m negotiating with the government. At the same time, we’re conducting some restructuring to ensure we get the most synergy from our internal structure. For instance, some sections work on a parallel basis, and we’re now trying to put them all together, so we need less personnel. At the same time, I’m also talking to the city of Berlin to see whether they have a budget. They currently don’t provide any financial support. It’s only the national government that supports us. We are also trying to find new sponsors and partnerships, so it’s a mix of different things, and I hope by September, we know how to solve this problem.

DEADLINE: Is the festival in immediate danger? 

RISSENBEEK: No, I don’t think so. In the end, someone, either the government of Berlin or the national government, will be responsible enough to intervene. And we still have some options such as reducing the number of films. If you have fewer films, you have fewer guests, so there is less organizational involvement. So, no, the festival is not in danger. But we have to think long term. In 2025, we will need another 10% budget increase. Instead of 34 million, you might need 37.

DEADLINE: Is that sustainable?

RISSENBEEK: That’s why we want to reorganize now, to make the cost drives slower. Maybe we find new ways of working with cinemas, so they don’t charge us increasing rent every year. Of course, they have costs too, but it’s quite a challenge for us, but I’m still working on discovering a new way of operating.

DEADLINE: Berlin is always so bustling during Berlinale, and I assume the festival brings a lot of money to the city, so I’m surprised that cash can’t be fed back through the festival. 

RISSENBEEK: That’s what I say when I talk to the city government. A bank in Berlin did some calculations in 2019 and estimated that Berlinale brings something like 100 million back to the city, whereas our budget is 32. The local government seems to be either unwilling to understand this argument, or they perhaps think the national government should be more responsive. It’s a battle between the two sides. Until 2002, the city of Berlin owned the Berlinale. At the time, the city of Berlin was very poor, so they sold it for one euro to the national government, which could support the festival financially. For some reason, the local government doesn’t want to re-enter this responsibility again. The city of Berlin has a mayor and parliament. I’m talking to the people that are in charge of culture and media in parliament, and they seem to be very interested in supporting us. So I hope I can achieve it.

DEADLINE: I assume it is difficult to explain the festival’s importance to politicians?

RISSENBEEK: Yes, and what is sometimes difficult to convey to both national and local governments is that Berlinale needs a red carpet with big names to get the all media attention. But we’re also in this big city with many different groups, so you need a very diverse film program. Everyone is always interested to see the Berlinale curated program. So you need both sides, which makes the process more elaborate than maybe a festival like Venice, which can focus much more on the red carpet, or Cannes, which can focus entirely on the industry and doesn’t have any audience from the city. It’s difficult to convey this dual system needed to make the festival work.

DEADLINE: So, was this financial uncertainty the reason you decided to resign? 

RISSENBEEK: The festival now needs someone with a long-term commitment to build a future. And I think I wouldn’t be that person.

DEADLINE: Why wouldn’t you be that person? 

RISSENBEEK: The job takes a lot of energy and investment. In March, I didn’t feel recovered enough to think about another five years of guiding the festival. Perhaps I would have made a different decision at another moment in time. But in March, I couldn’t see how I would do this for the next five years. It was part of my decision. Yes. Also, I think it would be good to have a person with fresh ideas and a different perspective on the festival from the organizational point of view.

DEADLINE: So you had an existing five-year contract that ends next March, and the festival offered you another five years, which you turned down? 

RISSENBEEK: Yes.

DEADLINE: During yesterday’s session, you suggested that some arthouse titles tend to enjoy high audience turnout during Berlinale, but far fewer people seek the films out in Berlin after the festival. Can you explain that a little more?

RISSENBEEK: With its curated program and marketing, the festival provides audiences with the feeling that they’re going to a special event, which mobilizes more people than the idea of going to a regular screening at the cinema. So I think we have to discuss the possibilities with the cinemas around what we could do as the festival to support the presentation of the films. Maybe that could be things like director Q&As.

DEADLINE: Is this not a question of Berlinale’s curatorial choices?

RISSENBEEK: Generally, the Berlin audience is one of the best audiences in Germany because, as I said before, the city is so diverse. There are so many different interest groups, and people are curious. But you need to provide a trigger point to encourage people to leave their homes and go to the cinema. It’s not enough anymore to read about a film in a newspaper or on a website. In Berlin, there’s already so much going on that the audience needs an extra push.

DEADLINE: Do you think the festival continues to maintain its position as one of the ‘Big Three’?

RISSENBEEK: It’s difficult to judge this in August 2023 because the SAG-AFTRA strike shows that other festivals are also very vulnerable if the stars don’t attend. But I think February is still a very good position for the festival, the city, and the audience. We are so different from Cannes and Venice, or Toronto or Sundance. I don’t think we lost any ground or value. But the changing distribution landscape is changing the character of the festival because if fewer films receive a theatrical release, the festival must take up a different role.

DEADLINE: You mention the SAG-AFTRA strike. As a festival head who is somewhat removed but also works intimately with the studios, what do you think about the two dual labor actions?

RISSENBEEK: Some people say it might play out well for the Berlinale because the strike probably won’t go on until February, at which point many of the affected films will have to be released.

DEADLINE: So you’re expecting a lot of big Hollywood movies? Have producers already started calling your phone?

RISSENBEEK: Carlo is going to LA later this year, and I’m sure he will have several talks.

DEADLINE: One of the most interesting discoveries during Berlinale 2023 was the Black German film collective Schwarze Filmschaffende. What did you think about their open letter and what are your thoughts on the group?

RISSENBEEK: The problem was the Norwegian animated film Helt Super, which had an unconscious bias that we hadn’t recognized. I must admit I didn’t know about the Schwarze Filmschaffende. Now we’re talking to them because we take their concerns seriously and want to respond. They have different kinds of goals. On the one hand, they want more films from Black filmmakers from Germany at the festival. They’re also fighting for the German government to support more Black filmmakers.

For next year, we’re thinking about how to be better prepared. In October, we’re doing sensitivity training with ARTEF for the festival curators. Carlo has hired Jacqueline Nsiah. She is based in Berlin and Ghana and will bring a different perspective to the selection committee. We had been too convinced that the Berlinale was a very open festival. I’m a bit older, and I didn’t know this notion of unconscious bias. I thought I knew how to look at the world, but we can now learn how to improve our processes and install better crisis management. The issue came up for us on the third day of the festival. If we had known about it a week before, we could have addressed it more professionally.

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