Despite the growing trend towards self-distribution, AFM is still a hugely important event in the industry, and something to which we should all pay attention. I spoke with AFM’s Managing Director Jonathan Wolf on Wednesday about his opinions about the show and the general state of the industry. Here’s what you need to know as a producer
1. Asia’s importance as a territory is growing.
This should come as a surprise to precisely no one; at least no one who has been paying attention to industry trends. However by the numbers, buyers from Asia represented 30.7% of total buyers, and 28.3% of total buyer companies attending AFM. This is more than any other continent, with the exception of Europe. However Europe is generally broken into EU and non-EU territories, and when taken individually those are both less than Asia.
China had particularly strong growth in attendance, with a 40% growth in total buyers and a 19% growth in buying companies attending the show. So not only are more companies attending AFM, but the companies that have already been attending are growing. This is unsurprising given the economic growth and spike in demand across the country.
2. Brazil’s media consumption and distribution outlets are growing exponentially.
The number of Brazilian buyers attending the show this year doubled this year. The number of individual buyers is up from 20 last year to 40 this year. Those buyers represented 9 companies last year and 15 this year.
However it should be noted that this does not necessarily indicate a shift in buying power. AFM only tracks the number of attendees, not the total number of films they buy. So one buyer from Australia could quite possibly buy as much media as 10 from Brazil.
For more information, check out this wonderful chart that AFM released Wednesday.
3. Faith Based Films are also growing exponentially
I spoke with a buyer friend over drinks at IndyOh! Lounge across the street from AFM who deals primarily in faith-based films. He said that last year he only had about 6 meetings, this year it was more like 20.
Several other faith-based buyers were sitting around the table and affirmed similar stories. According to them, there were about 3 faith-based films that had notable theatrical releases in 2013, but this year there were about 10 with 3 of them putting up a good showing at the specialty box office.
4.Tech has always influenced and shaped the film industry, and will continue to do so.
The infiltration of Tech was a hot topic at the first part of the finance conference. In the finance conference there was speculation that Alibaba and Google may look to gain large equity in studios due to their growing user bases and a need for content. These predictions are nothing new for readers of Hope For Film. According to Rich Klubeck “These studios are not that expensive when you look at tech giants acquiring apps valued in billions.”
We all know how camera and editing technology has cut the cost of film production, but new technologies are also rising up to help with finance and distribution. Several notable financing and distribution platforms had a showing at AFM. Slated’s Stephen Paternot Spoke at the Producer’s Forum. The Digital Film Cloud Network, an Online Service connecting buyers, distributors, and filmmakers had a booth on the 8th floor. And Finally, The Horror Equity Fund, which is Part Private Equity, Part Crowdfunding, all Horror content also attended the market to try to establish their platform.
I asked Jonathan about the trend in our conversation. His reply was this: “Technology has always influenced film. Filmmaking was made possible because of a technology invented by Edison and tech will continue to shape the industry. Just as technology influences every industry.”
Ben is the Author of The Guerrilla Rep: American Film Market Distribution Success on No Budget, Founder and CEO of Guerrilla Rep Media, and Founder of Producer Foundry. Formerly, Ben was the Chapter Leader for the Institute for Ineternational Film Finance for San Francisco, Vancouver, New York, and Los Angeles and screened business plans for the Film Angels. Follow Ben on Twitter at @TheGuerrillaRep.
