EFM 2025
Six days behind the scenes

Collège Maisonneuve students tell us about their experience as Telefilm Canada representatives at the EFM (European Film Market). An interesting story of resourcefulness and behind-the-scenes discoveries!

By Abdelaziz Benazzouz, editor, with testimonies from Stella Herce, Marion Sambor, Raphaël Lake and Thea Miron, for the 20 Berlin 2025 interns from Collège de Maisonneuve.

As part of our internship in Berlin, we had the opportunity to attend one of the world's most important film festivals: the Berlinale. As film students at Cégep de Maisonneuve, we had the chance to represent Telefilm Canada at the EFM (European Film Market). This unique opportunity, offered for the first time to college students, gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the Berlinale! Usually, only film professionals have access to this event, which takes place on the bangs of the festival. 

From training to practice 

In the few weeks leading up to the Berlin internship, we had several meetings in Montreal with Myriam Blais, Telefilm Canada's advisor, event planner and programmer, who guided us throughout the experience. Following a job interview, we were given several training sessions on our future duties at the Canada Pavilion, including how the European Film Market works and the various tools to be used on site. We were also provided with a number of documents to familiarize us with the various production and distribution companies we would be working with, the projects they were interested in, and their representatives on site.

In short, everything was in place to prepare us for this unique experience for film students! As we had been told beforehand, despite all the preparation, there's no substitute for first-hand experience. As soon as we arrived, we had to navigate between professional requests, managing requests in real time and the pressure of the moment. It was no longer a practice, but a real immersion in the environment. Fortunately, we were working in pairs, so we could help each other with the more complex tasks. We had access to several databases, so we could answer questions as accurately as possible and represent Canada well on the world stage.

As Myriam Blais had mentioned, it was as the days went by, and especially as we approached the end of the market, that we became fully confident in our abilities. In other words, just when we'd become resourceful, the market buzz began to die down. But perhaps we can put this expertise to good use by training future 76th Berlinale interns who will be working at EFM, if Telefilm Canada still wants us! 

Behind the scenes: the entrepreneurial side of filmmaking 

This was our first official job in the film industry. It gave us great work experience, but above all it taught us a lot about how the industry works. We talked to people in a variety of roles and from many different countries. The atmosphere was pleasant, everyone was friendly and kind, and people came to talk to us to ask questions and/or even just to chat. We guided them to their meetings, answered their questions and found them contacts for collaboration. It was very gratifying.

For newcomers to the world of cinema, being able to go behind the scenes of the industry, in real time, away from the spotlight and in a setting as welcoming as this, was an invaluable experience. It was in the context of such an opportunity that we had the chance to learn more about the business side of cinema. In general, we're quite familiar with the artistic and creative side of cinema, but this experience helped us understand the entrepreneurial and commercial side of the industry. By observing others trying to make their project stand out, we were able to learn more about what makes a project interesting in the eyes of producers and distributors. It's likely to be a precious lesson if we want to continue in the film industry!