Overall Attendance Up at Latest AFM

SANTA MONICA: The recently wrapped 2014 American Film Market (AFM) saw an increase in attendance, with 7,946 delegates showing up at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica for the eight-day market’s 35th edition.

The event, held November 5 to 12, also included 1,670 buyers from more than 70 different countries. Of the 794 registered buyer companies, 90 were AFM first-timers. The market saw a 3 percent uptick in overall buyers from last year, with a marked increase in buyers from Latin America (up 34 percent) and Asia (up 8 percent).

Exhibitor attendance was up 1 percent from last year, with 2,825 executives from exhibiting companies from more than 40 countries. The largest number of those exhibitors showed up from the U.K., France, Japan and the U.S.

Non-buyers and sellers such as attorneys, bankers, film commissions, producers and writers, among others, finished at 2,624, up 1 percent from last year. The AFM screened 432 films with 352 market premieres, 85 world premieres and a total of 654 screenings across the AFM Campus in Santa Monica.

The five-day AFM Conference Series showcased sessions on financing, pitching, production, marketing and distribution. Those conferences featured industry players such as Brett Ratner (producer), Cassian Elwes (independent producer), Tobin Ambrust (Exclusive), Mark Damon (Foresight Unlimited), Mark Gill (Millennium), Rena Ronson (UTA), Emanuel Nunez (Paradigm), Russell Schwartz (Relativity), John Sloss (Cinetic) and Nicolas Gonda (Tugg). The AFM Conference Series, which launched four years ago, hosted international audiences of more than 700 daily.

Meanwhile, the second year of the AFM Producers Forum brought together producers from around the world to learn and network at the AFM. The 16 forum sessions touched on a wide range of topics, from working with sales agents and digital delivery, to the future of independent film financing, led by experts including Ben Browning and Aaron Ryder (FilmNation), Stephan Paternot (Slated Inc), producers Ted Hope and Clark Peterson, and Clay Epstein (Arclight Films).

This year’s Roundtables and Conversations featured notable industry insiders including Wei Han (Bliss Media), filmmaker and comedian Adam Carolla, Meyer Schwarzstein (Brainstorm Media), Caroline Stern (Kaleidoscope Film Distribution), and many more.