Copyright Deadline
The American Film Market‘s return to Los Angeles is being cheered by the independent distribution community. The six-day event, headquartered for the first time at the Fairmont Century Plaza, got underway Monday after a misstep edition in Las Vegas and years in Santa Monica. The majority of industry we’ve spoke to this week have been enthused about the new venue, which is in close proximity to the agencies and Hollywood, and offers a more upscale business environs. “It’s very nice and civilized,” one seller told us. “This is definitely better than Las Vegas or the Loews [in Santa Monica],” another noted. A European buyer added: “We like this venue and it’s much better for off-site meetings.” As we know, it’s not possible to please everyone all the time. One buyer lamented: “AFM just doesn’t work. With companies like FilmNation, Black Bear, A24, 193, Capstone, etc., not at the venue we have to spend half our day in Ubers. The rooms at the Fairmont remain expensive [we hear prices are pretty much equivalent to the Loews, and those were always deemed too pricey] and small.” The exhibitor number is reported to be 285 this year. Pre-pandemic, the event was attracting 375-450 exhibitors. When it went virtual in 2020, the market saw a record 562. This year’s 285 is consistent with last year in Vegas. Despite exhibitor numbers falling from pre-pandemic levels, the overwhelming sentiment remains that people enjoy meeting in person. The venue contract is expected to extend beyond 2026, organizers IFTA tell us. However, next year the event will also have to compete with a retooled and turbocharged Toronto market, which could prove a headache for organizers. Coming into the event there were some fears that disruption to U.S. air travel may have a knock-on effect for AFM. We’ve heard from a couple of people who decided against traveling for fear of getting stuck in long delays, but otherwise the event doesn’t seem to have been significantly impacted. “We haven’t had any cancellations,” one seller told us. “I had a full day of meetings on day one.” Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of Christ is the big-ticket item at the market, with a budget for the two parts said to be in the $200 million range. Lionsgate had a buyers presentation Monday, but intel is limited due to them having signed NDAs. One buyer simply said to us: “Verrrrrry good.” Among new-to-market buzzy pre-sale packages are the Benicio Del Toro-Cameron Diaz crime-drama Reenactment; the Daisy Edgar-Jones title Bad Bridgets; and starry Jessica Chastain-Chris Pine drama My Darling California. Projects like Gerard Butler hostage pic Empire City and Black Bear’s Kockroach have added cast. There are also a handful of horror titles that are sure to generate heat. The buzziest of all indie projects announced this week is the Tom Ford movie we just revealed on Deadline. But that isn’t with a seller so isn’t at the AFM and will likely end up with a studio once the dust settles. “It has all the ingredients to be a good market,” one established international seller told us. “Let’s see if buying appetite matches the industry’s ambition. I feel there are a better caliber of projects this year and more realistic projects.” With that suggestion in mind, we went back to look at the “hot lists” from the last two editions of AFM. The level of project may be a tad higher this edition, but there’s not much in it. What’s striking is the low hit rate. Many projects haven’t been made or fell away, some are still to come, a few failed to take off at the box office, and a few turned into festival hits or good earners. The European Film Market in Berlin last year had a stronger lineup on paper but dealmaking was sluggish. The arrival of new domestic buyers such as Black Bear and Row K is certainly seen as a welcome development. The word on the street has been that more U.S. buyers are coming including a long-expected return to theatrical distribution for David Glasser. Screen reports today that FilmNation has set up a deal to handle sales for 101 Studios’ distribution titles. But the poor theatrical performances of buzzed-about adult-oriented fare such as the expensive The Smashing Machine and Sydney Sweeney starrer Christy are also a sign of how challenging the market can be. “There is a fair amount of projects,” one veteran international buyer explained. “But there is a clear absence of big independent propositions. Production budgets are out of control and not supported by the market. There are a host of $10M-15M movies which has proved to be a difficult category to pre-buy. Looking at the recent domestic results of independent films we are looking for a needle in a haystack. Films like Christy and Smashing Machine both got decent reviews, good theatrical launches, and had strong artistic elements to them.” Meanwhile, the streamers and studios dip their toes into the indie market less frequently. One of the consistent hurdles for indie theatrical distributors both at films festivals like Toronto and Sundance, and a market like AFM here, is that if you’re without a pay-one deal/streaming partner, it’s hard to close. Those partners still out there for indie movies include Hulu, HBO Max and Starz, but unlike previous years the amount they’re willing to shell out for a title has been capped. That said, there are plenty of theatrical distributors already armed with an SVOD deal, e.g., Sony Pictures Classics (Netflix), Searchlight (Hulu), Focus Features (Peacock), Neon (Hulu) and A24 (HBO Max), putting them in a feasible position to make a go at a feature. One leading seller told us: “The studios have been AWOL for long time with the exception of the specialty divisions. Netflix have tangibly slowed down in the last year. Amazon remains active. Apple won’t split territories so have been only an intermittent player in the indie space and usually only chase the glossiest packages.”
