AFM '99 Saved by the Numbers.

Good overall presence brings confidence to film distributors

The telltale of a market lies in the figures: the number of buyers, the number of exhibitors and the number of quality products available. Under those premises, the American Film Market (AFM) can be considered a mixed success.

According to official figures, there were 1,433 buyers, 106 fewer than last year. The exhibitors numbered 317, and there were 70 movies receiving their market premiere (out of a total 260 films scheduled for screening) on 21 screens in the four multiplexes scattered throughout Santa Monica being used by the AFM as screenings suites. There were also 115 movies for sale at the market for the first time.

Like the Monte Carlo TV Market, the AFM is also hotel suite-based, with the Loews Santa Monica converted into a conference hall. Even though Santa Monica's hotels can easily accommodate most of the 5,000 AFM participants, many executives were also scattered about in nearby Los Angeles.

The proximity of the two markets' calendar dates (Monte Carlo and the AFM created a sort of traveling caravan of TV executives between the two resorts. For all practical purposes, the nine-day AFM event (Feb. 25 through March 5) has become a four-day market, similar in the way that the Monte Carlo TV Market and the NATPE convention have both evolved into two-day events. In effect, by Monday, March 1, most of the buyers attending the AFM were gone.

This did not discourage companies like CLT-UFA International, which was happy to sell its movies to other exhibitors. "This is our second time at the AFM," commented CLT-UFA's Heinz Thym, "and it is becoming more important to us. We're now in theatrical distribution in France and Benelux, so we're acquiring product for our key territories as well as selling. Another advantage of the AFM is that we can meet producers directly."

For Promark Entertainment's Jonathan Kramer, the AFM was "very good. We have very good product and the market responded." Promark's sales focused mainly in Western and Eastern Europe, but contacts were also made with Chinese and Latin American buyers. Troma Entertainment's Lloyd Kaufman also found the AFM a good market to the point of "keeping the suite open until the last day." Vincenzo Mosca from Italy's RAI Trade reported that, although the market was "quiet," he was nevertheless happy because RAI's two key movies, La Balia and Tierra del Fuego, were very well received, even though he was limited to promotion and pre-sales.

As predicted, the AFM went heavily into television and pay-TV deals with companies from Germany taking the lion's share of the product. Some six German companies that attended the AFM were flush with cash after floating public stock offerings. The large amount of money that German companies used to buy films contributed to making this year's AFM a success.

Contrary to expectations, the number of Asian buyers actually increased by 6 percent to 133, while the number of Latin American buyers decreased by 6 percent to total 61 buyers. With 152 buyers, Japan sent the largest delegation, followed by Germany with 110 buyers, France with 77, Italy with 69, Korea with 58 and the U.K. with 55.

Economic problems in Brazil reduced the number of buyers to 13 (a 28 percent drop), Japan and Korea both increased their presence despite the fact that the market in those territories is in the doldrums.

The AFM organizers included a new feature this year: several of the screenings at the multiplexes (some 70 movies in all) were open to a paying public. Conferences and seminars included a luncheon addressing censorship and two panels on film financing. One round table concerned financing feature films and another predicted the future of financing independent productions. Film makers had other panels to choose from including "Cable Networks: The New Home for Independent Film makers?" and "The Role of the Actor in Financing Non-Studio Features."