US - The organiser of the 30th American Film Market says it is actively ensuring the integrity of its exhibition after poachers appeared at this year’s show attempting to fool delegates into believing they were exhibiting.
Held in Santa Monica, California, AFM attracts over 8,000 delegates including acquisition and development executives, agents, directors, distributors and financiers. Organised by the Independent Film and Television Alliance, the trade show’s economic worth is estimated to be US$11m for the city over the eight days.
“People always find a way to skirt around the rules and the official event,” AFM coordinator Pattie Service told Exhibition World, “but we are so closely tied to all of our hotel properties that we know almost immediately when someone is trying to set up a sales office in a hotel. Part of our contracts with the hotels prohibits them from providing their space for those activities.”
“Partners such as the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau scout for us to find any store fronts that appear suddenly during AFM. For most, they might be new marketing people and their intentions are innocent. Once they have been informed that it is illegal, we try and convert them to exhibitors if we have the space at the show,” she added.
AFM has taken place at the Loews hotel and Le Merigot hotel for the past 19 years, stripping the bedding in every bedroom to make room for exhibition stands primed for scheduled meetings with buyers, as well as taking over the Loews’ 1,580sqm exhibition space.
A total of 445 films, including 73 world premieres and 311 market premieres are screened while more than US$800m worth of deals are estimated to be signed during AFM. All 23 screens on the Santa Monica Promenade and the surrounding community become AFM screening rooms, while eight digital and video screening rooms are added just for the event.
AFM 2010 scheduled for 2 – 9 November.
