The European Film Market (EFM) returns to Berlin February 12–18, 2026, and this year’s message is unusually clear: the business isn’t “back” in any nostalgic sense—but it is moving, and in more directions than it has in the past two years. EFM’s expanded 2026 programme is a signal about where business development is headed.
The European Film Market (EFM) returns to Berlin February 12–18, 2026, and this year’s message is unusually clear: the business isn’t “back” in any nostalgic sense—but it is moving, and in more directions than it has in the past two years. EFM’s expanded 2026 programme is a signal about where business development is headed.
As Sundance wrapped with more films seeking homes than landing deals, and EFM looms as the first major sales test of the year, the question is no longer who has the best film, but who is best aligned with today’s market. 2026 will reward scale, discipline, and precision, and punish nostalgia for a business that no longer exists.
Hollywood continues to frame the post-lockdown box office slump as a temporary dislocation, thus a function of strikes, scheduling gaps, or audiences that need to be “retrained” to return to theaters. That explanation is convenient. It is also incomplete. What the industry is confronting is not just an economic contraction, but a cultural rejection. Moviegoing has become more expensive, more politicized, less comfortable, and overall, less rewarding.
The 2025 film markets delivered a consistent message across continents and calendars. Sundance tested demand. Cannes refined presales. TIFF amplified select winners. AFM clarified the new floor. Together, they confirmed that the industry is not rebounding to its old shape. It is stabilizing at a smaller, more disciplined scale. Fewer films will move. Fewer territories will matter. Fewer buyers will decide outcomes.
Paramount Pictures has recently entered into a significant slate financing agreement with Domain Capital Group, aiming to bolster its film production capabilities. This partnership reflects a strategic move to mitigate financial risk by diversifying investments across multiple films. However, the intricate nature of such deals has historically led to legal disputes, particularly concerning the transparency of financial practices.
The European Film Market (EFM) returns to Berlin February 12–18, 2026, and this year’s message is unusually clear: the business isn’t “back” in any nostalgic sense—but it is moving, and in more directions than it has in the past two years. EFM’s expanded 2026 programme is a signal about where business development is headed.
As Sundance wrapped with more films seeking homes than landing deals, and EFM looms as the first major sales test of the year, the question is no longer who has the best film, but who is best aligned with today’s market. 2026 will reward scale, discipline, and precision, and punish nostalgia for a business that no longer exists.
The 2025 film markets delivered a consistent message across continents and calendars. Sundance tested demand. Cannes refined presales. TIFF amplified select winners. AFM clarified the new floor. Together, they confirmed that the industry is not rebounding to its old shape. It is stabilizing at a smaller, more disciplined scale. Fewer films will move. Fewer territories will matter. Fewer buyers will decide outcomes.
Hollywood spent 2025 pretending it was in a cyclical downturn. It is not. The business is reorganizing under a harsher premise: fewer buyers, fewer viable windows, and less tolerance for anything that doesn’t behave like a franchise asset. The result is an ineluctable narrowing of the market—one that punishes independents, rewards scale, and converts distribution into a political and financial instrument as much as a commercial one.
Hollywood is no longer shaped by audience demand but by competing political blocs and foreign capital. Netflix’s $82.7 billion bid for Warner Bros. triggered immediate scrutiny, with President Trump signaling he would “be involved” as regulators examine the streamer’s expanding market power. Within hours, Paramount, backed by Larry Ellison, RedBird, Gulf sovereign funds, and Jared Kushner, countered with a hostile $77.9 billion all-cash bid.
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