Though the 26th American Film Market is still two weeks away, it’s already setting records.
As AFM officials previously announced, this year’s edition will feature a record number of exhibitors from a record number of countries, and last week Jonathan Wolf, executive vice president, Independent Film and Television Alliance and Managing Director, AFM, announced that a record number of films (529) will be screened between November 2 and 9, including a record 382 market premieres.
45 films to be screened at the AFM are Official Selections at AFI FEST, including 43 of the festival’s 70 narrative features, and two of its 17 feature-length documentaries.
“This record breaking market is a testament to the strength of the independent film business around the world,” said Wolf. “The 45 films at both the AFM and AFI FEST show that the industry sees tremendous value in our festival-market alliance.”
410 exhibitors will take part in the 2005 AFM, making it the largest market in the event’s history. Exhibitors will come from 33 countries, also a record. The 2005 exhibitors represent a 15 percent increase from the 356 companies that exhibited at the November, 2004 AFM. The increase is across-the-board, with 24 countries showing an increase in exhibiting companies.
The 529 films are in 35 languages, also a record.
Among the more noteworthy films to be screened are American Gun with Donald Sutherland and Marcia Gay Harden (Pathé Pictures International), Ask the Dust with Colin Farrell and Selma Hayek (Capitol Films – U.K.); Brooklyn Rules with Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Mena Suvari (KMI – U.S.); Conversations with Other Women with Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart (Fabrication Films – U.S.); Ellie Parker with Naomi Watts and Chevy Chase (Dream Entertainment – U.S.); Entre Ses Mains with Benoît Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carré (Pathé Distribution) (France);
Fierce People with Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland (Lions Gate Films – U.S.); I giorni dell’abbandono with Margherita Buy and Luca Zingaretti (Adriana Chiesa Enterprises – ITALY); New York Doll with Arthur “Killer” Kane and Bob Geldof; (Moviehouse Entertainment) (U.S.); October 17, 1961 with Clotilde Courau and Jean-Michel Portal (BAC Films – France); The ‘OH in Ohio’ with Danny De Vito and Mischa Barton (Archlight Films – U.S.); Tsotsi with Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto (The Little Film Company) (South Africa); Unknown with Jim Caviezel and Greg Kinnear (GreeneStreet Films – U.S.); and The White Masai with Nina Hoss and Jacky Ido (Beta Cinema) (GERMANY).
Official Selections at AFI FEST that are also being screened and/or sold at the AFM include:
06/05 The Sixth of May, 7 Virgins, Almost Heaven, An American Haunting, Antibodies, The Big White, Breakfast on Pluto, Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures, Come into the Light, Dark Horse, Dead Run, Geminis, The Gronholm Method, Hell, In Bed, Initial D, Kissed by Winter, The Libertine, Life With My Father, The Lost City, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Next Door, Princess Raccoon, Queens, The Red Shoes, Rosario Tijeras, Shanghai Dreams, Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, SPL, Stories of Disenchantment, Sunflower, The Suspect, Swimmers, Tattooed, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Transamerica, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, Tsotsi, The Wedding Party, The World’s Fastest Indian, Wrong Side Up, Zim and Co., Zozo, and the feature documentaries Horst Buchholz, My Papa and Screaming Masterpiece.
The full list of films being screened along with cast, director and synopses appears on the AFM web site www.americanfilmmarket.com.
AFI FEST’s full festival lineup may be seen at www.AFI.com.
The American Film Market (AFM) is the world’s largest motion picture trade event, a global marketplace that does more than $500 million in motion picture and television production and distribution deals annually.
Over 7,000 people are expected to converge in Santa Monica for this year’s gathering.The AFM is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the trade association representing the world’s producers and distributors of independent motion pictures and television programs.
