The American Film Market (AFM) is moving out of the Los Angeles area and heading to Las Vegas for its 2024 event, which will be held Novembers 5-10, 2024, at the Palms Casino. This, of course, means that the AFM and MIPCOM are just two weeks apart, but the general opinion amongst industry execs is that while it’s not good that these two important markets are held one after the other, they tend to attract different crowds, so many companies will attend both.
And indeed, on the surface, a rush to sign up — around 200 companies and 900 individuals had already agreed to attend the AFM as of mid-September — shows that people believe in the market. But whether Las Vegas and the Palms Hotel will truly mean success has to rest on post-mortems.
The move last year to a different hotel in Santa Monica, California — AFM’s traditional city — did not instill confidence. And this year’s move to Las Vegas has not necessarily warmed executives’ hearts — at least from a pure business perspective for most companies.
However, Jesse Baritz, VP, Content Acquisition and Development at the Los Angeles-based Multicom, said, “After years of AFM in L.A., I’m excited for a new experience at the Palms in Las Vegas. That said, I’ll miss the actual palms I would’ve seen alongside Santa Monica’s beach!”
Like many others interviewed for this story (full report in VideoAge‘s October, 2024 Issue), he believes, “AFM and MIPCOM are too close together. It’s exhausting, inconvenient for follow-ups, allows for fewer distinct opportunities to promote new releases, and hinders sales and acquisition efforts that otherwise would be uninterrupted. They should be at least six weeks apart, if not more.”
Baritz revealed that the entire Multicom team “is going to Las Vegas for our annual retreat! While many Multicom employees are based in Los Angeles, we have remote colleagues around the country, so gathering each of our departments in person will be great.”
The Multicom team (some pictured above) includes Chairman Irv Holender; president and CEO Darrin Holender; head of Sales and Distribution; Niloo Badie; director, Sales and Distribution; Josi Chow; and Acquisition and Programming manager, Ryne Dillon.
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