Dennis Ruh, the head of the European Film Market, will be stepping down in March of 2024. Ruh said in a prepared statement obtained by TheWrap that “The designated director of the Berlinale has decided to appoint a new head of the European Film Market for the 2025 edition and to let my contract as EFM Director expire in March 2024,” he said. “This news was brought to me via official channels. There was no conversation with the new Berlinale director. Therefore, the EFM in February 2024 will be the last under my leadership.”
Ruh started at the European Film Market in 2020 and helped navigate it through the pandemic. He highlighted that in his exit statement saying, “I look back on three editions in which we created important momentum for the international film and distribution industry, initially even in the newly developed virtual format. With the EFM 2023, we delivered a brilliant return to the physical format, breaking all previous participation and exhibition records. We also managed to make the market profitable again for the festival.”
The news comes just three months after Berlinale’s artistic director Carlo Chatrian left the festival’s board in the wake of leadership changes. Executive director Mariette Rissenbeek would soon follow. Tricia Tuttle, who previously headed up the BFI London Film Festival, was announced Thursday to become new director of the Berlinale starting in 2025.
Chatrian’s exit from Berlinale saw a mass influx of support, with Martin Scorsese, Joanna Hogg and M. Night Shyamalan being one of over 200 signers of a letter asking for his reinstatement.
During an investigation into Chatrian’s removal done by TheWrap several filmmakers and industry analysts feared Berlinale was showcasing a move to a more nationalist cinema. “Carlo’s taste was too effete for the government folks who run it,” a studio awards executive speaking on condition of anonymity told TheWrap. “They want[ed] him to report to someone in government. They wanted bigger, broader. He wasn’t beloved. [He was] too artistic. He cares too much about filmmakers.”
The festival has also struggled to remain relevant in a landscape where the neighboring Cannes Film Festival is taking on more prestige. “Berlin has a big problem because all the best films want to go to Cannes,” said Fabien LeMercier to TheWrap in September. “Berlin, 10 years ago, was pushing very high. It was a very big festival with a big market.”
Berlinale did not respond to request for comment.
