Taking a Gamble on the American Film Market
🎭 Pro Spotlight: AFM heads to Las Vegas and earns itself a new motto: We Could Do Better.
Moving the American Film Market from Santa Monica to Las Vegas raised eyebrows, but about 1,800 entertainment industry people showed up at the Palms Casino Resort to mix, mingle, hustle and hopefully sell their films.
Long registration lines, poorly trained staffers, lack of places to sit and far flung meeting locations ranked this among the worst conferences that Julie and I have ever attended.
The lack of event basics–free water and coffee–was insulting. There were no tote bags and nowhere to eat an affordable meal except in a loud and crowded food court. (We did lots of networking with folks in the line for Panda Express.)
The refreshments offered by AFM included $6 coffee, $15 breakfast sandwiches and $24 salads.
Heartfelt thanks to the friendly Palmdale representatives in the Location Expo for offering water, candy and chips.
Attendees sat on the floor because there were just a handful of chairs outside the ballroom where the AFM sessions took place.
There were no sessions on Tuesday, the first day of the market, presumably due to the election. The session on reaching global audiences was the best of those we attended, providing some insight into which genres are selling where. The session on distribution fell short; the speakers all said the same, vague things while promoting their films. The session on film financing was light on useful information, beyond the shocking idea that casting stars is helpful. The session on producing was abruptly canceled.
Although we paid $795 for a four-day badge (plus airfare and hotel), we had to wait in long lines in order to attend the sessions, because AFM wanted their Platinum badge holders (paying $1,195) to enter first. There were a lot of available seats at all the sessions, so it’s hard to say what this accomplished beyond annoying everyone who wasn’t Platinum.
On the positive side, the good folks at WrapBook handed out mints, purple socks and sunglasses while explaining their payroll and accounting services. (Julie used them for her latest film and found them awesome.) WrapBook also hosted an open bar party and served attendees an excellent hot meal.
Exhibitors from about a dozen foreign film commissions offered an oasis, or at least a chair. They happily handed out pens and notebooks while explaining their film commissions’ support and tax incentives.
I had two great meetings with my Polish collaborators from ORKA Film. We met at the Location Expo until it became too noisy, then found a cafe near the pool that was comfortable, quiet and out of the casino’s fray.
The lounge was comfortable and provided some spectacular views of Las Vegas. It was about the only place to network outside of the food court. Among others, I met a young producer who had flown in from Johannesburg and said that with no welcome reception or social events for anyone without a Platinum badge, she felt lost and confused.
I also chatted with a stressed out producer from Denver who was there to sell two horror films with a “natural element” shot in Colorado. He was having no luck meeting with anyone interested in his mostly self-funded films.
A depressed, boutique film distributor said that the streamers were now buying lots of foreign films for very low fees. Various speakers said the voracious appetite for horror and thriller films was waning–-really bad news since it appeared that 95 percent of the films screened at AFM were in those genres.
“High-end independent films need to be presented to the market in a creative environment with proximity to talent, press, marketing teams and cinema audiences. A Vegas trade fair does not fulfill that function adequately,” AGC Studios chairman and CEO Stuart Ford told Deadline.
