American Film Market Adds AFM House Venue for 2026 Edition, Expanding Its Innovation Hub
The American Film Market is growing its campus. The 2026 edition, set for November 10–15 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, will add a new venue called AFM House — 15,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space dedicated to the market's second annual Innovation Hub. Deadline
AFM House will sit at The Pavilion at Century Park, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, directly across from the Fairmont Century Plaza, where the market's exhibit space and deal-making floors are housed. Screenings will again be held at AMC Century City, a short walk from the main venue. The market is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance, or IFTA, a trade association for the independent film and television industry. Deadline
The Innovation Hub launched in 2025, built in collaboration with Cannes Next and the Marché du Film's Innovation Program — the Marché du Film being the business market that runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival each May. For its second year, the Hub will feature AI startups, technology companies and forward-looking programming, spotlighting tools that shape how films get developed, financed and produced. Deadline
AFM House will also host the Cinemas Club, co-created by the Marché du Film and Cine Group. The Cinemas Club debuted at Cannes and brings together theatre owners, distributors, producers and industry experts for discussions on the future of exhibition, audience engagement and the evolving cinema experience. At AFM, it will run as an exhibition and speaker series focused on what comes next for theatrical cinema. Guillaume Esmiol, executive director of the Marché du Film, and Julien Marcel, president of Cine Group, are behind the collaboration. Deadline
The 2026 edition is AFM's 47th, and it carries the theme "The New Global Screen Economy" — the market's first-ever themed edition. Jackie Brenneman, IFTA's president and CEO, leads the organisation behind it. The American Film Market describes itself as the premier film acquisition, development and networking event, where hundreds of millions of dollars in distribution and financing deals are closed each year. It is, by its own positioning, more business-focused than any other motion picture event — a place where sales agents and buyers decide what reaches screens, not a festival with red carpets and jury prizes. Deadline; American Film Market
Beyond the Innovation Hub and the Cinemas Club, the market runs The AFM Sessions, a conference programme of more than 30 conversations, and LocationEXPO, which connects film-makers with film commissions, production service companies and global partners. The AFM also bills itself as the only sales market produced by independents, for the industry. American Film Market
For the independent film business, the calendar runs on a handful of markets — Sundance, Berlin's European Film Market, Cannes, Toronto, and the AFM in November. The addition of AFM House gives the market's technology and exhibition programming a dedicated home of its own, separate from the sales booths and screening rooms where distribution deals are struck.
