American Film
Market
Feb 21 - 28 (Los Angeles)
The 2001 American Film Market opened Wednesday, February 21, amid rumors of
a depressed global indie marketplace and lowered expectations from American
buyers. Even so, the Market, which comes on the heels of the Berlinale
Market screenings as well as Sundance
and Rotterdam
film festivals, is offering a record 400 films for sale including 238 that are
premiering here.
Over 70 countries and 1500 buyers have jammed the Loews Hotel, taking meetings
in every corner of the lobby and poolside as well as watching endless trailer
loops for films in pre- and post-production worldwide in the sellers booths.
An increased police presence outside the hotel offers a surprising counterpoint
to the eclectic international mix inside.
Apparently on duty to regularly thwart jaywalkers running across busy Ocean
Avenue, uniformed officers were joined Thursday by dozens of mounted police
when they arrived en mass to face service workers from Loews picketing in opposition
to the hotel's non-union policies. In what was a seemingly massive overreaction,
hotel workers barred Market guests from leaving as picketers barred them from
entering at the front door while police in riot gear rode herd on the peaceful
group (many of whom had brought their children with them). The picketers finally
moved to the beach to protest at the AFMA (American Film Marketing Ass.) Award
ceremony.
The tented AFMA party survived both the demonstrators, and the cold winds that
had kicked up, presenting an somewhat unusual group of recipients with awards
for their contributions to the indie film business. Honored were Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Roger Corman, Renee Zellweger and Renny Harlin. Event organizers were hurriedly
passing out free tickets late Thursday when it became apparent the awards ceremony
was to be poorly attended.
Many overseas buyers are using the AFM as a scouting trip to get an overview
of what is in the Indie pipeline rather than as a buying trip. Those companies
who are selling are representing a number of films already seen on the festival
circuit: Double Whammy,
Fat Girl, Series
7: The Contender, Scratch, Disco
Pigs, Hedwig
and the Angry Inch, JSA
and Before
Night Falls have all been seen, reviewed and awarded at festivals such
as Venice, Berlin and
Sundance.
The same companies are also trying to sell films that have been on the market
for a while, including films such as Second Skin and Psycho Beach
Party, in addition to the new titles. LolaFilms, in particular, has a number
of exciting new films to promote: Rain from first time Director Katherine
Lindberg, starring Melora Walters and Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese;
The Dancer Upstairs, the directorial debut from Actor John Malkovich;
Son de Mar from Director Bigas Luna (Jamon, Jamon) and Commonwealth
from Director Alex de la Iglesia.
Festival circuit films that have had sales success at the AFM include Doug Pray's
Scratch which premiered at Sundance last month and sold to Intermedia;
101
Rejvkavik which has played a number of festivals including Sundance,
Berlin and Toronto and is sold by the UK company, Metrodome, as well as Don's
Plum, the 'banned in the US' Indie feature starring Leonardo Di Caprio and
Toby McQuire, rep'ed by Zentropa and sold here to Indonesia's Swe Zhe Group.
The award-winning waydowntown
from Canadian director Gary Burns will be released in the US by Lot 47.
If an emerging theme is present from the hundreds of films at the Market, it
is that production values among Indie films is soaring while story/script remains
the great unknown. For filmmakers to compete in this marketplace, they must
have a fine-tuned technical production command as proficient producers continually
raise the bar. Repeatedly, however, the same filmmakers are less than successful
in translating script to screen. Few but the well-established directors are
being heralded, and a number of the films will have trouble finding even a cable
outlet to call home.
A much quieter party scene remains the social avenue to signing deals. Over
the weekend, a number of companies offered a variety of events. CineTel, celebrating
its 20th Anniversary, held the most unusual fete Friday night complete with
handwriting experts, tarot card readers and card tricksters mingling among the
crowd. Miramax, screening a number of their new films under the 'Private Screening'
banner to avoid press, held its annual cocktail party on Friday as well; Dream
Entertainment, with two films at the Market (101 Women, Spencer),
hosted a pool hall bash; KWE honored their films with a Mexican flair, and LolaFilms
presented a private reception for all their films, with their talent attached.
Kathleen McInnis
AFM contact
info
Chatelin Bruno 
