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Over 1,500 individual buyers representing more than 700 international distribution companies from 62 countries are on hand for this year's AFM, a 53% increase over last year. 258 exhibitors have transformed the eight floors of the Loews Hotel into a one-stop shopping film bazaar. The hotel beds, dressers and mirrors are gone, replaced by stylish office furniture, comfortable chairs, desks for dealmaking and posters . . . thousands of posters! More than 5,000 people are expected to attend this year's market (and dump $10 million into the local economy). The bright Atrium that is the centerpiece of the Loews allows you to observe the capacity crowd on many levels at once (and gives the cigarette smoke room to rise).
Every room in the hotel is converted into a film office. From the small rooms down darkened corridors on the 3rd floor to the expansive suites on the 7th and 8th floors, film exhibitors have covered all available wall space with posters promoting completed as well as incomplete films. It is in these rooms and corridors that the elusive "pre-sales" of films merely in script form with a director or star attached get made. Of course, by the look of the posters, trailers, flyers, frisbees, key chains, business plans and refreshments available through every other door, it's easy to forget that not all of the projects that are being sold are actually completed films.
Aside from the many buyers and sellers we will profile here on the Hollywood Network during the AFM, three other groups of people in attendance deserve mention: security/staff; visitors; and hotel staff. Security is tight and there is a friendly face (with a badge) around every corner, near all exits, in the stairwells, by the elevators and along the hallways. Just as long as you show your photo ID, they'll be happy to accommodate your every request. No badge, No entry, No bull. AFM Staffers wear tee shirts bearing the command "Ask Me" but their rolled up shirt sleeves, walkie talkies and intense expressions may cause some lost souls to keep wandering the 8 floors until they find what they're looking for instead of making any inquiry.
The film buying business is serious business and not just any producer with a hyped up business plan and one-sheet can make it to the exhibitors' rooms. (They can make it into the hotel and can wander around the 4th floor lobby, eyeing every badge that passes in order to stop and pitch any buyer within reach.) Visitors appear to make up the bulk of humanity that drifts in, around, through and along the sides of the main lobby. Eyes darting back and forth, scanning each badge as it passes, these visitors appear intent on pitching their projects to at least a handful of souls during their lobby tour of duty. Fortunately, the hotel staff has positioned cappuccino machines, lunch tables, a sushi bar and extra restaurant tables all over the lobby floor. This allows the visitors to at least sit a spell while they watch their prey. It also prevents the need to walk the handful of blocks up the road to the heart of Santa Monica for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any other necessary nibble. Given the huge number of people in the hotel to feed at any one moment, hotel staffers appear constantly to be in cycles of tearing down and setting up the next a la carte table or meal preparation. Were it not for the restaurant whites sported by the hotel food services staff, it would be easy to forget that this building is used as a hotel for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Independent films continue to be the dominant source of product for the international and domestic markets bought and sold at AFM. This year, 177 new films are available for licensing, including more than a dozen that were screened in Park City, Utah, in January during the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Films at AFM are:
Other films already enjoying U.S. theatrical releases or with upcoming release dates include:
There are also lots of titles that just sound fun: Lady Law; Sophie and the Moonhanger; Tigerclaws II: Sabertooth; Cul-De-Sac; Guns and Lipstick; Animal Instinct 3; Dime a Dance; The Ogre; The Real Shlemiel; Dead Girl; Cyberjack; Revenge of the Calendar Girls; Hemoglobin; Dad & Dave -- On Our Selection; Obit; The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter; Men Always Lie; The Lady From The Movie; The Heavy Petting Detective; IO No Spik Inglish; and, let's not forget Fontaine: Killer Babe for the C.I.A.
For the remainder of the Market, the Internet Entertainment Network will profile an assortment of international distributors/sellers as well as buyers and bring you short takes on each of the five seminars at this year's market, each focusing on Realizing the Independent Vision; Strategies to Survive and Prosper in the Age of Mega-Mergers.
If you have any special requests for information from the market or would like us to profile any particular buyer or seller, please email us at producing@hollywoodnetwork.com
