American Film Market (AFM)

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Imagine a farmers market, but instead of fruit and vegetables, the tables are selling movies, some finished, some still just a script, a poster, and a big idea. Buyers walk from table to table, deciding what to purchase for their own country or region. That is essentially what the American Film Market, usually just called the AFM, is for the movie business.

Every year, people from all over the world travel to Santa Monica, California, for the AFM. Producers and sales agents bring movies to sell, sometimes finished films, sometimes only a script and a cast list, and distributors from dozens of countries come to buy the rights to release those movies in their own territory, like France, Japan, or Brazil.

Why it matters for financing, not just selling

The AFM is not only about handing over finished movies. A lot of the deals made there are actually promises: a distributor agrees to pay a set amount, called a Minimum Guarantee, once a movie is delivered to them later. Those promises can then be used to borrow real money right away, using an Advance Rate to figure out how much a bank will lend against them. For many independent films that are not backed by a big studio, deals struck at markets like the AFM are the main way the movie gets financed in the first place, often before filming has even started.

Fun facts

• Many of the deals at the AFM happen in hotel suites rented out just for the week, turned into temporary offices for buyers and sellers to meet in.
• A movie can be bought and sold country by country at the AFM long before it has a single frame of footage, sometimes based on nothing more than a poster, a short pitch, and the names attached to it.
• Distributors compare a new project to older, similar movies, called comps, to help decide how much they are willing to promise for it.