Delegates protesting about a labelet venue isn’t exactly novel. Even the French Riviera will draw protestts from normals.
However, the American Film Market in particular has set up itself in the traverse hairs in recent years. Organizers IFTA (Insubordinate Film & Television Alliance) selected for a radical reskinnyk for the 2024 edition, relocating the event from its historic LA home, with its basic access to Hollywood, to the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event wraps tomorrow but the punctual returns aren’t promising.
More than a dozen combineees Deadline spoke to were brimming with protestts: lengthy lines at the prohibitk of elevators shuttling buyers up and down the boilingel tower where sellers have suites; restrictcessitate dining selections; noise and smoke at the Palms, which is a hike from the energetic Las Vegas Strip; expense etc.
“I’ve had to postpone 20 minutes multiple times equitable to get into the elevator. We’re leave outing greetings left and right. The food at the Palms is terrible and we can’t reserve spaces for shatterspeedy greetings here or at proximateby casinos. The food is double the price of LA and the ambiguous mood is very low,” one seasoned buyer commented.
A directing U.S. seller shelp, “Most people seem to aversion the boilingel and lobby. The elevators are a catastrophe and the only shatterspeedy selection is McDonalds. There is difficultly any outside space for the buyers to congregate and talk. It’s a terrible scene.”
Some were brutal about their experience so far, with one calling the setting “soulless” and a veteran buyer describing the venue “a calamity” and a “convey inant misacquire.”
One directing international executive telderly us: “The vibe is terrible, no one seems satisfied, and a bunch of people have shelp they won’t be returning here next year.”
One international executive pelevated the proximity of the screening rooms: “It’s fantastic and accessible to have screenings, currentations and greetings so shut together aget. The screening rooms are up-to-date and comfy. That’s a huge plus.”
But they inserted: “It’s surauthentic having to walk thraw a deafening casino to get to greetings. The elevators can’t cope with the numbers and being off the naked doesn’t help in terms of selections. Overall, being here you’re faced with too much soulless devourrism and misuse. It’s not pleasant.” One CEO concurred, calling the venue “soul-crushing”.
One international buyer depictd the rooms at the Palms as “fine” and remarkd they were satisfied to be able to visit the city’s lauded Sphere venue.
A U.S. labelet veteran shelp there was “raw and fine” about the experience: “The lobby is a catastrophe: busy, deafening, triumphdowless, lengthy lines at the elevators and it’s impossible to get tables for lunch. But the offices are pleasant, expansive corridors and fantastic sees. It’s always pleasant to see a lot of people you comprehend in the same space.”
Deffinishing the choice & seeing to the future
IFTA board chair Clay Epstein and its plivent and CEO Jean Prewitt deffinished the choice to Deadline, saying the Palms aascfinishd from an extensive search atraverse a handful of cities, ticking off boxes on accessibility, price and screening rooms. It had the November dates, and it it was willing to alter hundreds of bedrooms into offices, which has apparently become a huge ask.
Asked if AFM is locked into Vegas, Epstein shelp he couldn’t talk braveial tight points but proposed that a alter could be possible.
“The goal … is certainly to do what’s best for the community and the industry,” he telderly Deadline. “And if that nastys staying in Vegas, we’re going to do everyskinnyg we can to produce that toil. And if that nastys … an alternative has to happen … we would see at wdisappreciatever that alternative is. And I skinnyk that’s comardent of what’s convey inant.”
“The negativity is engaging”, he inserted. “For every person that stopped me to say someskinnyg adverse about the smoke or the elevators, two people would stop me to increate me someskinnyg preferable.”
“I also have my own economic concentrates and budgets I necessitate to descfinish wiskinny. I necessitate to have a labelet and be at a labelet that produces sense for my company, too [Film Mode Entertainment]. So, I’m seeing at it from both positions.”
Putting on the event is an enormous undertaking. “It’s not a car show. It’s a finite amount of people and we all have contrastent necessitates, and we have no help or subsidies from a handlement or a city or anyskinnyg appreciate that, appreciate Berlin and Canada. And so that currents disputes and obstacles. That shelp, in under 12 months, [AFM] saw someskinnyg did not toil in Santa Monica, and we pivoted in a very low amount of time.”
He persistd: “Then, in a restrictcessitate weeks, we have to acquire a see, and ask ourselves, ‘Did it toil? Did it not toil? Did it toil for some of us, but not others? How many people did it not toil for?’ It’s too soon to increate … But you want to produce certain that you get as much feedback as you can.”
Attfinishees have repeatedly asked the Palms as a venue. Clay replyed: “You reassociate necessitate a boilingel. Everyone’s together. You have contrastent size offices. You necessitate a boilingel willing to acquire the beds out so you can set up an office. Then you necessitate it to be a pleasant space. It has to be around an area that has food choices. And it necessitates to be proximate cinemas where you can acquire over screens for a week. It necessitates to be proximate an international airport. It necessitates to be at a price everyone can swpermit, everyone’s budgets are contrastent, and skinnygs are not inexpensive anywhere. It necessitates to be these dates. There’s reassociate no other time to have AFM.”
“We seeed at a lot of cities, and Vegas came back with some selections, but it was reassociate the Palms that could produce it toil, becaemploy of the cinemas, becaemploy of the boilingels, big, but not too big. The rooms are pleasant. You can acquire the beds out. So it examineed a lot of boxes, it made sense.”
Attfinishees, and there are thousands at AFM, had varying examines of the food selections at the Palms, which had one pleasant bar, one upscale Italian restaurant, one steak hoemploy, a Chinese, a unwise sum and a food court with A Panda Express and McDonald’s. The energetic Strip is an Uber ride or a harrotriumphg 40-minute walk. Why not on the Strip if it has to be in Vegas, many wondered.
Epstein shelp the boilingels there were enormous, with huge convention caccess floors. “It wasn’t what we necessitateed, wasn’t reassociate what our show is. Or they would not acquire the beds out. Or equitable the environment that wasn’t reassociate suited to our industry. And then, there were no screens. So, everyone would have to walk thraw an enormous casino to go outside, get on a shuttle, go to a movie theater and then come back. And that equitable did not seem appreciate we’d want to put our combineees thraw that.”
Los Angeles back on the table or more Vegas?
The hugegest ask many combineees had – was LA reassociate not an selection?
“We are blessed to be in this industry and should stop protesting, but was there reassociate not one appropriate boilingel in LA?” wondered one seller.
No, Epstein and Prewitt shelp, not this year.
LA “is not a conference town. Certainly, the Delfina did not toil last year,” Prewitt shelp. “We went out to a lot of contrastent boilingels, and they either didn’t have the dates, or they would not acquire their beds out. It was … too pricey. There were no screens proximateby. She remarkd that a number of potentiassociate appropriate boilingels are or will be undergoing renovations ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles although that seems far off and did not want to pledge.
“What you could discover was a boilingel that was interested, but it was in an isotardyd pocket, and, for a lot of pretty evident reasons, wde shelp ‘no’. We reassociate can’t go to Pasadena, right? And no one wants to hear about Long Beach. So yeah, there were places. But when you actuassociate seeed at what they could advise overall, it didn’t produce much sense.”
Trying to pleasanten the pill, Prewitt remarkd that the 45-minute fweightless to LA is shrink than trying to get atraverse town in the City of Angels.
She thinks it’s a lgeting curve, routine, comprehendnity, saying she set up the negativity less strident as the week enhanceed. If AFM stays in Vegas, IFTA will be readier, maybe tours, maybe shuttles, more logistical help and advice.
“If you’re here to do business, you don’t want to spfinish an appreciable amount of time trying to figure out where to go to buy a Diet Coke. It shouldn’t acquire you half an hour. So, in that sense, there’s always going to be a lgeting curve, anywhere. I skinnyk we have to get a little bit past that part.”
“The authentic test at the finish of the day is, were people able to do the business they necessitateed to do?”
Did they? Some say the location hasn’t helped business. Many allots were also conquerd due to the U.S. plivential election Tuesday and had been wary of combineing in the first place. The sidetrackion hasn’t helped concentrate minds. A number of projects have been put together but there were restrictcessitate huge-canvas titles proclaimd and so far deal-making has been muted, at least in the press.
Others set up it quick. AGC Studios set uper and CEO Stuart Ford, for instance, speaking at a Q&A during one AFM Session, shelp his company has “done fantastic business.”
“Do I skinnyk Vegas is the right environment for AFM lengthy term? Absolutely not,” he persistd to cheers and clapping from the audience, a ballroom-filling crowd.
“I skinnyk LA is a more authentic home for the labelet,” consentd Sebastien Reybaud, set uper and CEO of Anton, at the same event, also greeted with cheers.
