In terms of monthly net income, the earnings of camera operators in Berlin (1,400 euros) as well as stage, image and sound technicians (1,600 euros) are comparable with the national average in these areas, although they are slightly below those in Hamburg and Munich. A survey of producers also awarded Berlin the top ranking of 1.6 for cities across Germany for its excellent key location factors (qualified personnel / production infrastructure / infrastructure / rents – personnel costs / cost of living).
In terms of the number of production companies, Berlin is the lead ing production location in Germany. Moreover, the city is also home to a large number of independent producers. The long list of film production companies located here includes, for example, SENATOR ENTERTAINMENT AG, X FILME CREATIVE POOL, NFP and BAREFOOT FILM. As the location of the headquarters of the UFA / RTL GROUP, Berlin is home to Germany’s largest company producing media content. In addition to such major distributors as SONY PICTURES, STUDIOCANAL, X-VERLEIH, and SENATOR FILM VERLEIH, there are a wealth of smaller distributors including NEUE VISIONEN, SALZGEBER, FARBFILM and PIFFL, which focus primarily on art house film. The second use of films via digital services is constantly growing, and with WATCHEVER, MOVIEPILOT and REALEZY a diversity of these platforms are already located in Berlin.
With modern studios in Adlershof, Tempelhof, the Mediaspree development as well as Babelsberg, the region’s studio landscape more than meets the standards for film production today. The numerous young and ambitious visual effects (VFX) providers form a strongly emerging new sector. Thanks to their outstanding expertise in special effects, animation and 3D, they are already working on many international productions. With the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg based here, Berlin is also home to the second largest regional film funding agency in Germany. Every year, the Medien-board provides around 30 million euros for screenplay and project development, production and distribution as well as for location marketing activities. Furthermore, German federal state investment banks and banks providing loan guarantee services support the film sector with loan schemes, including bridging loan finance for commissioned productions, and loan guarantees.
The Berlin-Brandenburg region has also gained an international profile in the fi lm sector through numerous major productions such as, most recently, George Clooney’s »The Monuments Men« or Wes Anderson’s »Grand Budapest Hotel«, and is becoming increasingly popular not only as a location for film companies, but also as a shooting location. This development is refl ected in the statistics for the number of shooting days: while there were just 1,100 shooting days in 2008, the figure for 2013 has already exceeded 2,500. Every year, over 300 national and international productions are shot in the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region.
Berlin is Germany’s cinema capital, distinguished by its richly diverse landscape of cinemas and balanced mix of movie theatres dedicated to mainstream and art house film. With an ambitious series of pro¬grammes, festivals and events, the cinema scene in Berlin plays a main role in strengthening the city‘s appeal. At the same time, since the cinemas are a location where cultural content is disseminated, they also make an important contribution to media education. In 2013, Berlin had over 90 cinemas with 261 screens, with audience figures of over nine million.
For the international film branch, the BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is a »must-do« event. In 2014, the Berlinale, as the festival is known, attracted an audience of over 20,000 film professionals. During the ten days of the festival, more than 300,000 cinema tickets were sold. In the context of the growing EUROPEAN FILM MARKET, rather than just being a film festival, the Berlinale offers an established market place for film industry visitors from around the world.
The proximity to policymakers in Germany’s capital has also attracted nearly all film industry associations and networks to locate their main offices in Berlin, including the German Producers Alliance – Film & Television, the Hauptverband Deutscher Filmtheater representing cinema owners, the Association of Film Distributors (VdF), and AG KINO as well as the European Film Academy and the German Film Academy.