Berlin's film market counts AI sessions, not a market policy

The shot

On 18 February 2026, the European Film Market (EFM), the industry market held alongside the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, published its own closing press release reporting more than 12,500 attending professionals, 606 films screened, and an industry programme of over 100 masterclasses, workshops and panels. The release states that programme content ranged 'from innovative virtual workflows to AI supported audience engagement,' and separately reports that the inaugural EFM StartUps Award, presented with Screen International, went to Veronika Gamper of WeDaVinci for what the release calls an 'AI-storyboard pitch.'

What the documents show

EFM's own release documents attendance and programming figures for its 2026 edition and names AI as one subject among the sessions it ran, alongside virtual production and other topics; it does not identify any single session as carrying binding market policy. A separate, undated page describing the market's Innovation Hub, retrieved 16 September 2026, states that the Hub brings together 'AI-driven tools, virtual production, audience intelligence, and green-tech innovations' among its exhibitors and programming, confirming that AI content is a recurring curatorial theme rather than a one-off panel.

The workflow

A producer or distributor attending EFM can expect AI-related content across masterclasses, an awarded pitch category and an exhibitor hall, rather than through a market-wide disclosure or eligibility requirement comparable to a competition's submission rules. The market's own account frames this content as informational and networking-oriented: the release credits attendance growth and exhibitor interest without describing any new obligation placed on films or projects screened or pitched at the market.

What the tool does not change

Neither document states that the European Film Market or the Berlin International Film Festival has adopted a policy governing AI use in market-screened or Berlinale-selected films; the market's own account describes conference programming and an award category, not a rule. Treating a masterclass schedule as equivalent to a festival's eligibility regulations would overstate what EFM's own release and Hub description actually claim, and neither addresses what the Berlinale's own Official Selection regulations separately state about AI, which this record does not cover.

• Is the AI content you are citing from EFM a market programme item or a documented market rule?
• Does an award like the EFM StartUps Award describing an AI tool amount to endorsement of that tool's production readiness?
• Have you checked the Berlinale's own Official Selection regulations separately from the market's programming pages?

What EFM's own materials support is a market reporting growth and AI-themed programming in the same release, a narrower claim than a market or festival adopting an AI policy, and the two should not be collapsed into one.