This year’s 37th annual American Film Market (AFM) opened in early November in Santa Monica with 367 exhibiting companies and more than 7,500 attendees from more than 80 countries looking to turn dreams into reality as they seek out producers and distributors for their independent filmmaking efforts.
Produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the AFM turned the Santa Monica Loews Hotel into Ground Zero for all foreign and domestic film distribution deals.
While a film festival usually provides a showcase for upcoming films, the AFM featured eight days of deal-making, screenings, seminars, and industry networking.
Some of the participants included acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, financiers, producers, and writers.
During the course of the eight days from Nov. 2 to Nov. 9, more than 300 films were screened and included big-budget blockbusters as well as low-budget art house and genre films.
Despite its name, the AFM featured an increase in overseas presence with the United Kingdom, Italy, and China leading the way in the number of registrants More than 200 registrants came from as far away as Mainland China with an additional 75 more who arrived from Hong Kong.
Because the AFM is such a global event, it has attracted the attention of the biggest deal-makers in the independent film market including David Glasser, President of the Weinstein Company; Zanne Devine, Executive Vice President of Miramax, and Tannaz Anisi, President of 13 Films.
While a film festival attended by lots of Hollywood and foreign film heavyweights may sound like fun and games, it was anything but. The attendees focused on the serious business of getting their films produced and distributed.
One of the ways in which they did that was by attending several seminars that got into the nuts and bolts of film distribution.
Some of the seminars included “Producing in China,” “Working with Sales Agents,” “Producing Studio Films with Independent Budgets,” and “Making an Impact: How Telling LGBT Stories Can Pay Off.”
The AFM is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance, which is a global trade association of the independent motion picture and television industry.
For more information on AFM, visit their website at www.americanfilmmarket.com