AFM Reports High Attendance

SANTA MONICA, November 9: The American Film Market (AFM)
came to a close yesterday and this year’s gathering has been one of the most
successful, with about 8,400 participants from 64 countries, including some
1,500 buyers and a record 435 exhibitors.

This year, the biggest film market in North America
attracted a larger international crowd than usual with more buyers and
companies from Italy, Turkey, Japan and Latin America.

The AFM, which is organized by the Independent Film &
Television Alliance (IFTA), the trade association that represents producers and
distributors of independent films and television programs, draws an eclectic
group—from leading indies such as Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company to
individuals shopping their one and only script.

Countless times, in the hallways of the Loews Santa Monica
Beach Hotel, or in Le Merigot Beach Hotel, where the AFM was held, or in
numerous restaurants, one could hear the line, “OK, tell me in one sentence
what your film is about.”

While a significant portion of the deals conducted were for
theatrical film releases, the DVD and home entertainment market is an extremely
important part of the business for all companies that attended the AFM.

Jens Richter, the managing director of SevenOne
International, was looking to close DVD sales on the company’s event
mini-series, such as Tornado. “TV movies
and mini-series of prime-time quality have great DVD potential,” says Richter.
In fact, he met buyers from Italy, Spain, France and Latin America.

Following the success of the catastrophe miniseries Tornado, SevenOne is now offering the miniseries Towering
Inferno, about 80 people trapped in the
Berlin TV tower, as well as The Hunt for Troy, based on the real-life story of Heinrich Schliemann,
who set out to fulfill his childhood dream of finding the ancient city of Troy.

Chevonne O’Shaughnessy, the president of ACI, conducted some
MIPCOM follow-up business, but mostly saw buyers she did not see in Cannes last
month. ACI was highlighting the action-thriller Banshee; Amber’s Story, a dramatic thriller based on a true story; and the suspense thriller Her
Fatal Flaw.

Heading Cinamour’s slate was the picture From Mexico with
Love, from Jimmy Nickerson, the fight
director of the Rocky movies and
Raging Bull. This movie tells the story of
an illegal immigrant worker who tries to build a new life in the U.S. Also on
offer was When I Find the Ocean,
starring Lee Majors and Diane Ladd.

PorchLight Entertainment has the international theatrical,
broadcast and DVD rights to the feature film Rain based on The New York Times
bestselling novel by V.C. Andrews (known in the U.K. as Victoria Andrews). Rain, produced by Big Headz Entertainment and Lexi Dawg
Media in partnership with Merv Griffin Entertainment, stars Faye Dunaway,
Robert Loggia, Brooklyn Sudano (daughter of disco diva, Donna Summer) and
Khandi Alexander, who is a regular on CSI: Miami.

First Look Studios was represented at the AFM by its two
companies, First Look International and First Look Television, and they were
offering titles for both theatrical release and home entertainment. Two of
First Look International’s main films are A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Diane Wiest, which
tells the story of a young man growing up in a tough New York neighborhood; and
An American Crime, about a
seemingly ordinary housewife who imprisons and tortures a teenage girl who has
been left in her charge.

The DVD business is very important for First Look. “There is
still a rental business around the world,” says Ken DuBow, the president of
First Look Television. “There are companies like ours who need to have lots of
titles.” In 2007, in fact, First Look will have 12 to 16 movies for
straight-to-DVD.

For most of the companies at the AFM, the most important
thing is to offer buyers fare that is less expensive and different from what
the Hollywood studios have. Vision Films represents the Kushner-Locke Library,
the World International Library and the Harry Novak Collection of horror movies
as well as individual feature films and documentaries. “We set out to offer
what the studios don’t,” says Lise Romanoff, the founder of Vision Films, who
recently set up Vision Music, which offers music-based TV series, feature
films, documentaries and videozines.

Next year the AFM will be held from October 31 to November
7.