..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

To Market, to Market
… to Buy a Fat Pig

The American Film Market slithered into Los Angeles this week and the minions of sales agents and acquisitors from every corner of the globe descended upon Santa Monica like locusts ready to feed on that elusive good film.

It's a pivotal moment for the AFM for several reasons. Once again its organizers have decided to wage war against MIFED, the Milan-based film market that traditionally unspools in November and provided some of the inspiration to create an American variation.

In its nascent days AFMA looked upon MIFED and the other major annual market in Cannes and concluded a number of key things. It was a time of tremendous optimism and expansion in the independent sector a quarter century two decades back and the prospect for a third annual conclave in the spring seemed like the logical compliment to what was then in existence. The American companies also felt gouged by the considerable costs of doing business in Europe and eventually reckoned that they could concentrate their efforts at a single annual event that would take place in their own back yard.

There was also potential money to be gained simply staging the event and if they failed to proceed, the spring venue could well have migrated to Hong Kong or Rio or Sydney.

Of course, the cyclic nature of the industry changed the face and attitude of the AFM in subsequent years. Three markets to many minds was one too many and no one was going to willingly close shop for the greater good. So a decade back the American Film Market Association (now the Independent Film and Television Association) declared war on MIFED and staged a fall edition in direct competition.

Rather than solve the situation it created four annual markets and the overlap had a number of buyers doing double duty. How this current frontal assault will play out remains to be seen but the strategy has changed somewhat for both events.

In addition to the new fall dates, the AFM decided to align with the American Film Institute Film Festival to provide the full spectrum of high and low film art. Meanwhile, MIFED organizers have been making noise about shifting dates and in some fashion forming a mutually complimentary association with the Venice Film Festival. While the two events aren't exactly in the same neighborhood, neither does the AFI Fest's Hollywood base provide for an easy commute to Santa Monica. It doesn't take much of a leap to imagine that in 2005 several screens at the AFI's Arclight might be turned over to AFMA and an orbit of the film fest could spring up at one of the market's 3rd Street Promenade theaters.

The goal for both organizations is to create a marriage that works in the manner of Cannes. It's a nice idea but excuse me for maintaining a degree of skepticism about pulling off the sleight-of-hand. To be blunt, Cannes - and to a more modest degree Berlin _ are the only film events that have managed to retain both an active festival and market presence under the same umbrella. Berlin could well develop an enhanced market as a result of the AFM pulling out of the spring and, especially, if MIFED goes down for the 10 count. However, Berlin occurs on the heels of Sundance and Rotterdam and will have to tilt its market to more mainstream sellers if it hopes to fill a potential vacuum. If that indeed works out the bad news is that there will once again be three must stops on the annual market calendar.

It should also be noted that Sundance and Toronto have viable and active market components despite the absence of any formal set up. Rather they exist because both festivals have a considerable lineup of debuting movies. And it's in that regard that MIFED has a possible edge. Venice is a major showcase for new films whereas the AFI schedule is dominated by product that's already been seen at Cannes, Venice, Toronto and other fest/market venues.

The other advantage these long-standing showcases have boils down to years of developing an operation that works for both the public and the industry. Toronto has set up so many press/industry screenings that it's possible to avoid going to a single public screening. It's a two-track system that has to be the envy of any organization hoping to bring together the movie industry's hydra-like worlds of art and commerce.

Even though there aren't currently many compelling reasons for visiting film buyers from Peru or Thailand to hop on a shuttle to Hollywood for the festival and there's extremely limited public access for market screenings, there still exists the potential to build that bridge between the two events.

The AFI lineup has been steadily improving under the stewardship of Christian Gaines and this year has a solid mix of glitz and the esoteric. The event received a boost on getting splashier fare when the Academy Awards moved its date forward a month and playing the fest became more strategic for campaigns. Last year that netted such films as Monster and The House of Sand and Fog and the current edition is book ended with Beyond the Sea on the life of Bobby Darin and The Sea Inside, Spain's Oscar submission about a quadriplegic man's decision to take his life anchored by a performance from Javier Bardem that's a near certain Academy nominee. The program is dotted with foreign-language Oscar submissions, Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education, Al Pacino heading a pedigree cast in The Merchant of Venice and a portrait of renowned cameraman Haskell Wexler by his son - Tell Them Who You Are - that pulls no punches.

The program is also chock-a-block with discoveries from Europe, Asia and Latin America as well as the dwindling American independent arena that should whet the whistle of any dyed in the wool cinephile. Ken Loach's A Fond Kiss, Duck Season from Mexico, the Russian My Stepbrother Frankenstein, Germany's Head On and Somersault from Australia are just a handful of movies worth catching ahead of the wave.

Meanwhile, across town the film market features some of the most successful local productions from major nations including Japan's Crying Out for Love in the Center of the World and the Star Trek spoof Starship Surprise from Germany. Both films have grossed more than $70 million on their home turf but have yet to make a dent in the international marketplace. Though the former film played in competition in Cannes, more often than not the most popular films from foreign nations haven't translated commercially in the U.S. and an event like AFI Fest might be just the right sort of showcase to redress that situation or at least bring it up for scrutiny.

A couple of weeks back David Kornblum from Buena Vista International was trying to put together a comprehensive list of the top grossing non-English language movies outside of North America. He wasn't sure about including The Passion of The Christ that would chart second with a tally of roughly $250 million. Otherwise the box office champions are Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, both prime examples of Japanese anime by Miyazaki. Other familiar titles on the list would include Amelie, Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

But the group also includes Asterix and Obelisk, a live action version of the popular comic strip with a cast that includes Gerard Depardieu and Benignini, the Japanese action comedy Bayside Shakedown 2 and the western spoof The Shoes of the Manitou from Germany. The trio and countless others never made it to these shores because they were deemed not to translate to audiences outside their borders. It's impossible to say with certainty whether that assessment was correct. Regardless, there are a raft of Hollywood productions that would sensibly appear to be too local for foreign tastes. American Pie and its sequels come to mind and they each grossed in excess of $100 million theatrically outside of America.

The edge that Hollywood movies have over their international counterparts is access to the marketplace. The majors have worldwide distribution networks whereas the likes of Toho, Pathe and Constantin rarely extend into neighboring countries. That reality remains the single greatest frustration for foreign sales companies that make the annual trek to the American film market. They've heard it all and for them America has a resistance to all things foreign that's longer and more formidable than The Great Wall.

In addition to everything else, there's a blind resistance to dubbing and the American Motion Picture Association's hard line on "free trade" denies sellers and cultural bureaus to effect anything more than token reciprocity.

So hands across the border gestures like the AFI Fest might extend well beyond its current outreach to the American Film Market. There was a time when film festivals were the place to discover new talent and new movies and paved the way for worldwide distribution. The true marriage of a festival and market rather than a loose association has the potential to rekindle that incentive. It's a golden opportunity that neither organization can afford to let slip from their grasp.

 

- by Leonard Klady