Berlin & Rotterdam; India’s JioHotstar; Singapore Cinema Contraction

Feb 21, 2025

Not surprisingly, given current events in the US and Europe, politics weighed heavily on this year’s Berlin and Rotterdam film festivals. The films, awards and speeches all reflected the valid concerns of the industry and filmmakers as they attempt to navigate an alarming new world order.

At the same time, muted business at Berlin’s EFM, following a similarly slow Sundance, highlighted further that this is an extremely tough time for the creative industries. Public funding is under pressure everywhere; the number of financiers and buyers continues to contract, as the industry consolidates; and as Ethan Hawke rightly called out in Berlin, the private money still standing is retreating into films and series that are generic, safe and mediocre. More on all these issues below...

Politics Loom Large At Berlin & Rotterdam

Europe suddenly finds itself in a disturbing position – with the US cosying up to Putin and attacking European values; while internally it faces the rise of the far right, a particularly pressing issue for Germany, which is heading to the polls this weekend with the right-wing populist party AfD expected to make gains.

So it was no surprise that the winning films at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR, Jan 30-Feb 9) touched on issues including nationalism and extremism. Igor Bezinović’s documentary Fiume o Morte!, which won the Tiger Award, examines Italian army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio’s attempts to annex the city of Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) to Italy following the First World War. Raptures, which won the Big Screen Award in a separate competition, follows a woman trying to protect her family when her husband launches a religious cult.

IFFR award winners with subject matter set outside Europe included Sammy Baloji’s The Tree Of Authenticity, a visual essay examining the colonial history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which won a Special Jury Award, and Vasha Bharath’s Bad Girl, a Tamil-language coming-of-age comedy, which won the Netpac award. Streamlined aims to take a closer look at Indian indie filmmaking later this year – female coming-of-age stories seem to be working with the festival circuit, but it would be refreshing to see other subject matter also being accepted.

Despite its renown as a festival that takes on challenging films, IFFR managed to escape major controversy. Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 13-23) had a harder time striking a balance between being open to free speech, as supported by new festival chief Tricia Tuttle, and being attacked by politicians after a Hong Kong filmmaker read out a pro-Palestine speech on behalf of one of his actors. Calls for defunding the festival came despite the balanced note it struck in its opening days with Tuttle attending a vigil to bring attention to Israeli hostages, including actor David Cunio, still held by Hamas.

Other festival guests were more subtle in their comments but didn’t shy away from making political statements. Tilda Swinton, who was awarded a Golden Bear for lifetime achievement, said “the inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch”, while jury president Todd Haynes said: “we’re in a state of particular crisis right now in the United States, but also globally”, when asked about US President Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office.

Asian festivals are mostly operating outside of these geopolitical nightmares – it’s still too early to say how Trump’s approach to China will impact the region – but some festivals, such as Busan International Film Festival, are based in countries experiencing internal political struggles, with South Korea’s president currently being impeached for declaring martial law late last year. We all need to buckle up because, despite the pressing need to focus on business, this is a year in which politics will be difficult to avoid.

**Tilda Swinton accepting Berlinale’s lifetime achievement award**

Muted Business At Berlin’s European Film Market

Berlin was praised for having more red carpet fodder this year – Timothee Chalamet in his pink hoodie, Robert Pattinson and Jacob Elordi, among others – promoting either Berlin titles or Oscar contenders. But star power doesn’t always translate into business, and like other recent markets, Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM) resulted in a steady trickle rather than a torrent of deals.

Among the hotter market titles – Lena Dunham’s Good Sex, starring Natalie Portman, sparked a bidding war, yet to be resolved, and Sony Pictures Classics took North American rights to Rebecca Zlotowski’s French-language Vie Privee, starring Jodie Foster (yes, she speaks French). A few other films also found US distributors – Yellow Veil Pictures bought Lucile Hadžihalilović’s The Ice Tower, starring Marion Cotillard; The Forge acquired New Zealand coming-of-age drama We Were Dangerous; and Mubi bought Oliver Hermanus’ gay romance The History Of Sound, starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal.

It was also encouraging to see some Asian and Arab titles generating business – deals were reported on Chinese competition title Living The Land, Indian Sundance prize winner Cactus Pears and Annemarie Jacir’s upcoming Palestine 36 (see ‘Sold’ section in links roundup below).

But while the trades were full of talk that independent cinema is back – or at least has a chance to fill the gap left by retreating US studios – every time a big market like EFM takes place, we just get further confirmation that the distribution model is broken. Theatrical distributors, broadcasters and streamers are all acquiring less and the market is contracting around a few safe bets. In the run-up to Cannes, Streamlined will be talking to as many producers, distributors and investors as possible to see what this means for regions outside of the US and Europe. And then there’s public funding, which is also under pressure, but more on that soon...

India’s Streaming Market Consolidates Further

India been going through massive consolidation in recent years with Viacom18, Star India and Disney India now effectively all under one roof – the haveli owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries – so where there were once three streaming services – Voot, Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema – there is now just one: the freshly branded JioHotstar.

Launched last week, JioHotstar is streaming sports, including IPL and ICC cricket, and 300,000 hours of entertainment in 19 languages to 500 million users. In addition to a vast library of content in Hindi and other Indian languages, it also has deals with Disney, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount. It’s also experimenting with live streaming, most recently a Coldplay concert from Narendra Modi Stadium, and a short-form initiative, Sparks, spotlighting India’s biggest digital creators. Some content is free while paid subscriptions start at just Rs149 ($1.70) for three months.

Deadline’s Jesse Whittock recently published an in-depth interview with JioHotstar’s three co-heads – Kiran Mani (CEO, Digital), Kevin Vaz (CEO, Entertainment) and Sanjog Gupta (CEO, sports) – which broaches the two immediate questions I had after reading the launch press release. What does this mean for the future of Indian premium drama? The number of buyers for high-end series is contracting with some saying that Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are the only other streamers able to commission bigger budget shows. And will this service ever be available globally?

Read Jesse’s interview to find out more – the answer to the first question is not massively reassuring, and the answer to the second sort of confirms the reason Netflix gained world dominance is because they rolled out around the world fast and comprehensively, not because they have the best content. Many other streamers could be global but just haven’t moved fast enough. JioHotstar’s chiefs talk a lot about how Netflix doesn’t have the reach that they do in India – which is true, but then their shows can’t be legally accessed outside India, so the diaspora is already watching Indian content on Netflix.

Singapore’s Cathay Cineplex Shutters Another Cinema

On February 20, Singapore exhibitor Cathay Cineplex shuttered its West Mall cinema at Bukit Batok, just eight months after it closed its AMK Hub site. Singapore-based mm2 Asia, which operates the circuit, said the West Mall closure followed the expiry of its lease: “This also aligns with the cinema chain’s rightsizing strategy to optimise its operational footprint. The cinema has been undergoing the post-Covid-19 rightsizing exercise for the past two years.”

Cathay Cineplex still operates five other sites but has fallen behind on rental payments for some of them. Mm2 Asia acquired the chain in 2017 for $172m (S$230m), a few years before it was hit by pandemic closures, the rise of streaming and Hollywood strikes. In 2024, Singapore’s box office revenues came in at around 60% of pre-pandemic levels. Of course it’s not alone. While a few of Asia’s developing markets like Indonesia and Vietnam are bouncing back after the pandemic, most Asian theatrical markets are suffering.

In China, the record-breaking success of Nezha 2 is masking a wider crisis in the theatrical sector after box office was down 23% last year. But the worst hit markets are probably those, like Singapore, that are mature, mid-sized, relatively affluent and don’t have a large volume of local films to compensate for the Hollywood shortfall. These are the markets where consumers are most likely to be staying home and paying for multiple subscriptions to streaming services.

During EFM, the European Audiovisual Observatory reported that European cinema admissions dropped 2% to 841 million in 2024 with revenue flatlining at $6.9bn (Euros6.6bn). “Cinema attendance appears to have settled at around 24% below pre-pandemic levels,” the report stated, suggesting that “the post-pandemic rebound has run its course, and the market may have reached a new equilibrium.”

Is Asia facing the same new equilibrium? Are there any solutions for the exhibition sector? Alternative content, multi-purpose cinemas, premium experience? Does the production sector need to adjust to a new business model with fewer theatres and lower box office? And what does that mean for budgets? Will some countries even be able to continue making films if their theatrical market is shrinking? After all, the new equilibrium seems to be also telling us that streamers are buying fewer films as they focus on originals.

Streamlined by Liz Shackleton

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Streamlined by Liz Shackleton

Berlin & Rotterdam; India’s JioHotstar; Singapore Cinema Contraction

Politics Loom Large At Berlin & Rotterdam

Muted Business At Berlin’s European Film Market

India’s Streaming Market Consolidates Further

Singapore’s Cathay Cineplex Shutters Another Cinema

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