By Mike Reynolds
As usual, whether the excitement, enthusiasm, and possibilities will eventually translate into film sales will only become evident in the future, considering that the six-day market started on November 11, 2025 — a period when budgets get depleted.
However, the return to Los Angeles and the selection of a great location in the Century City area seems to have lit a positive fire under attendees (estimated at 6,132) for the 46th annual American Film Market (AFM).
Sold-out booth space, demand for more sessions at the last minute, a bigger turn-out at the Location Expo, and a belief that the AFM really does have a definite and bigger future at last clearly led to this successful outcome. The event featured 285 registered companies from 35 countries. Buyer attendance, set at 500 companies from 61 countries, was consistent with 2024, when AFM moved to Las Vegas from its usual Santa Monica. A new initiative was the Innovation Hub, which featured nine companies. The AFM conference featured 35 sessions with 135 panelists.
Italian companies had a very visible presence with more than a dozen companies attending. Up, down, and along the sales floors, everyone seemed busy, none more so than the delegation from China, as every attempt to get in the door led to a long wait for everyone.
Lise Romanoff, Managing Director/CEO of Vision Films and an AFM board member, revealed how pleased she was at the overall response to the Century Plaza venue and the number of companies and individuals who had signed up for this year’s event. Romanoff also noted that the screens at the Century City Mall being so close by meant that there was no more need for long bus trips to and from screening rooms, as had been the case with the Santa Monica location in the past.
Carlos Herrera from American Cinema Inspires was another who welcomed the venue change, suggesting that “this year’s location has made AFM a favorable market for us. We were able to schedule numerous meetings and engage with attendees in various areas, including the lobby, elevators, and walk-ins. This was a welcome change after several years. Our business flourished and we were able to secure acquisitions. We continued to promote our first television show, Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries, which garnered significant attention.”
Cluster’s Arturo Cisneros Samper from Navarra, Spain (probably the smallest region in Spain) was not only representing the audiovisual industry in the area but all of Spain when he hosted a reception during the market to draw attention to the area and country in general.
Jesse Baritz reported that “Multicom had an excellent AFM, met plenty of both new and returning buyers and had fantastic intros with up-and-coming filmmakers. We brought a set of newly activated titles for the market, and completed a deal to purchase the Victory library during a meeting at our Multicom suite.”
Ahmed S. Badawi, Managing Director of the Egyptian Film Commission, revealed that the country’s Media Production City has six million square feet (557,420 square meters) of space housing 90 sound stages, numerous workshops, and a full range of equipment for any type of production, along with 18 different backlots representing different areas of Egypt, as well as a London backlot, and options to change them to any places and areas a production may need. Since inception just over five years ago they’ve seen more than 110 different productions from different parts of the world, including Paramount and NBC from the U.S. utilize the facility. At the moment, Egypt is offering 30 percent cash back but Badawi said there will be an announcement, at the next Cannes Film Festival, of an amendment to that deal with an expected percentage increase.
Pictured above: The hotel’s lobby; the second level below ground, (P2), was used for Location Expo, Innovation Hub, Filmmakers & Networking Lounge (the first level below ground, or P1, was the Exhibition Pavilion and meeting tables, while companies had their meeting suites on floors 3-11); one of the 35 sessions; the official AFM 2025 poster.
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