Videoage International December 2018

14 December 2018 V I D E O A G E O n October 31, the American Film Market (AFM) opened its doors for its 39th annual eight-day edition — its 28th in Santa Monica, California. This year, for the first time, a badge was required by all who wanted to enter the Loews Hotel, the market’s official venue. This was to discourage attendees who conduct business in the hotel lobby without paying any registration fees. Jonathan Wolf, the AFM’s managing director, praised the move because, “Now participants don’t have to show their badges to security personnel once inside the Loews.” “However,” added a veteranAFMexhibitor, “the freeloaders are like a herd that goes wherever it finds open pasture.” In this instance, that pasture refers to Le Merigot Hotel, which is adjacent to the Loews, and the Viceroy Hotel, which is across the street from the Loews. These hotels don’t require badges to lounge in their lobby areas. The result of this new badge requirement was that registration areas were accessible from outside the Loews and that “entrance lanes” channeled participants to the hotel entrances after security personnel checked both sides of the badges to spot counterfeits. Another related development was that while the Loews lobby seemed to have fewer people than in past years, the overall action was said to have been better than at last year’s edition, which much of the press had described as “slow.” According toofficial figures, theAFMwelcomed 70 companies from 28 countries that attended for the first time as buyers, with the largest numbers coming from the U.S., China, Italy, South Korea, Canada, Germany, Spain, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Buyers from the world’s leading digital platforms were also in attendance. However, it has been pointed out that most of the business talks were about projects nearing completion, those in pre- production, and those in-production, rather than actual sales. In addition, the AFM had 60 new exhibiting companies from 15 countries at the market. Of the 400 exhibitors, the U.S. had the biggest presence with 160, followed by the U.K. (34), France (29), South Korea (22), China (17), Japan (13), Russia (12), and Germany (11). One AFM veteran from the U.S. noted that he takes a photo of the large board with all the exhibitors posted by the elevators on the fourth floor each year, and from year to year, he’s noticed that at least 30 percent of those companies did not return, replaced by other exhibitors. This situation is also reflected in the composition of the Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA) board of directors, where, out of 18 member companies, five did not exhibit (or 28 percent). The IFTA is the association that organizes the AFM. As for total attendance, it reached more than 7,000. For 2018, the AFM placed an increased empha- sis on industry intelligence and education, ex- panding its programming line-up of conferences, roundtables, workshops, and spotlight events, and added the AFM Gallery at Le Merigot Hotel as an additional venue. More than 150 speakers took the stage for 40 sessions featuring a diverse array of topics to support virtually every facet of the business. The Conference Series began Friday, November 2, with “The Global Perspective,” that featured a dialoguewithIFTApresident/CEOJeanPrewittand Motion Picture Association of America chairman/ CEO Charles Rivkin on the major challenges and opportunities facing the film industry and how their organizations are addressing them. November 6 — the day before the AFM ended —marked the start of the 15-day-long 32nd Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, held at the Steve Tisch Cinema Center. Opening night was at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. More than 40 new Israeli films were presented. And the American Film Institute’s AFI Fest, no longer concurrent with the AFM, took place November 8-15 at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. But it has not been a good period for various film festivals around town, including the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, which has announced that it is closing. The AFI Film Festival, Outfest, Dance With Films, the L.A. Latino International Film Festival, and COLCOA are all experiencing hardships, too. There were 400 screenings of 326 films showed across 26 screens at this year’s AFM. Of those, 64 films were world premieres. Among the slate of films screened were candidates for the Academy Awards’ Foreign Language nomination, including Switzerland’s Eldorado (Playtime). LocationEXPO, in its second year, took place November 3-6 in a dedicated exhibit space in the Loews Hotel. More than 60 film commissions, go- vernment agencies, production facilities, and ser- vices were represented with a combined offering of billions of dollars in production incentives and resources. FilmMarket Gains Efficiency With Badges To Enter Hotel’s Lobby AFM Review The Loews lobby had fewer people than past AFM editions, but the overall action was described to have been better than at last year’s edition. The atrium at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel For the first time, a badge was required to access the Loews Hotel Jonathan Wolf, the AFM’s managing director