European crime films at European Film Festivals: Cannes, Berlin and Venice (Confidential)

This report explores the presence of European crime films at European film festivals. It does so by examining an extended sample of films from the three major European film festivals: Cannes, Berlin and Venice. These three festivals are widely regarded as the most prestigious and largest in Europe (forming part of the global ‘Big 5’ alongside Sundance and Toronto) and as such are premier destination for films of all types, particularly European production. Prior to this point there has been no systematic data in this area. The aim is to substantiate the exact numerical and national make-up of European crime cinema within the European festival circuit. Systematic analysis of the film programming strategy for these festivals from 2016-2020 has been carried out to be able to outline the presence, number and make-up of European crime cinema at European festivals. In total 104 crime films were identified out of 2058 films (5.05 %) surveyed across three festivals from a 5-year period (2016-2020).