Thousands expected at AFM in November
By Daily Press staff
OCEAN AVE. — The world’s largest motion picture trade event has expanded its base in Santa Monica.
As a result of an overwhelming response from film and television companies around the world, the American Film Market, which will be held in November, has expanded its exhibitor space to include offices at the Le Merigot Hotel, said Jonathan Wolf, executive vice president of the Independent Film & Television Alliance and managing director of the American Film Market.
Running well ahead of February’s market with more than 300 exhibiting companies already committed, this year marks only the second time in the AFM’s 15 years at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel that organizers have taken additional exhibition space — the last time being in 2001.
The Le Merigot Hotel, which is located directly next to the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, also is the site of the AFM’s three video screening rooms and their sell-out seminars. All exhibitor offices at Le Merigot will be on the lobby level, including Peter Hoffman’s Seven Arts International.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the AFM will run Nov. 3-10. Attendance is projected to be more than 7,000 people.
For City Hall, the annual film market means anywhere from $250,000 to $300,000 in hotel bed taxes. For local merchants, the thousands of extra visitors to Santa Monica means untold millions of dollars in meals out and cab rides.
The AFM is a global marketplace where more than $500 million in motion picture and television production and distribution deals are closed annually. Each year, thousands of industry professionals converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal making, screenings, seminars, networking and hospitality.
Participants come from more than 70 countries, and include leaders in motion picture and television production and distribution, directors, agents, writers, lawyers, bankers, festival directors, film commissioners and trade groups.
The event was normally held in February, but organizers permanently changed it to November. The idea was to shift the film market so that it is on a natural cycle with some major film festivals. For Santa Monica, it means twice the revenue this year. For hoteliers, that means nearly 12,000 room nights sold. In other words most, if not all, of the city’s 3,700 hotel rooms will be booked for several days straight.
The Loews and Le Merigot will act as a sort of tradeshow floor, where executives view clips and sell distribution rights. At Loews, all of the hotel’s beds will be taken out and put in storage, while desks, telephone and fax lines, audio/visual connections, plasma televisions, DVD players and all the elements of a tradeshow will be put in place.
The AFM is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (formerly AFMA), the trade association representing the world’s producers and distributors of independent motion pictures and television programs.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 7, 2004. Read the original PDF.