AFM teams with AMC to put cinemagoers in buyers' screenings
Film buyers at November's American Film Market will share their seats with ordinary cinemagoers.
The market has partnered with AMC to open screenings and presentations from its exhibiting companies to members of AMC A-List and the B-List Movie Club, as Variety reported on 21 September. The 47th American Film Market runs 10 to 15 November in Los Angeles, with all market screenings scheduled for 10 to 13 November.
Those screenings will take place at AMC Century City 15. The cinema sits directly across the street from the market headquarters at the Fairmont Century Plaza, which keeps buyers, sellers and audiences within a short walk of each other.
Sales and production companies, the firms that sell distribution rights to distributors from different countries, will be able to use the cinema to premiere films, present upcoming projects and stage screening events. The menu of options includes world and market premieres, meaning first showings for the public or first showings for buyers, alongside slate showcases where a company presents several titles together.
There will also be so-called amplified screenings. These add hospitality and concessions, red-carpet arrivals and photo opportunities with acting talent around the showing, according to the market.
The seats will be full. The B-List Movie Club has 5,000 members in Los Angeles who will be able to attend market screenings and presentations to provide audience feedback, as Variety reported. The market says the collaboration will bring cinemagoers into select screenings alongside buyers, in materials published in its screenings menu.
For fans, this means an early look at films before distributors decide their fate. For sellers, a laughing, gasping or restless room is immediate information about how a title plays.
More than 215 exhibiting companies are already confirmed for this year's market. The AFM describes itself as the only sales market produced by independents, for the industry, and its main business remains the buying and selling of films and television projects for cinemas, television and streaming.
The theatre deal does not change that business. It adds a public audience to part of it.
