This Week at AFM

This week, filmmakers from around the world are heading to Santa Monica to attend the American Film Market.

According to their official website, “AFM is the premier film acquisition, development, and networking event where more than $1 Billion in distribution and film financing deals are closed each year on completed films and those in every stage of development.”

Exciting stuff! And we’ll be there. Or, more specifically, my brother and collaborator Christopher Connolly will be attending while I remain at the keyboard.

In the days ahead, in addition to working on the novelization of one of our scripts, I’ll endeavor to share some of Chris’s reporting from Santa Monica.

I’m particularly interested in a number of panels being offered this week. Among them:

Evolving Roles & Relationships: Sales Agents and Producers, in which panelists discuss their roles, how they collaborate, what buyers want, and how to set your project up for sales success. Moderated by Clay Epstein  President of Film Mode Entertainment.

Developing, Pitching, and Making Television, which promises to answer the questions: What should go into your TV pitch bible? What should you have prepared if you’re on a Zoom pitch? And, once your show gets greenlit, what is the process like working with the buyer? Moderated by Nathan Varni, Executive Director of Current Programming at ABC/Disney.

Modern Horror: The Genre and What Scares Us Evolve, in which industry experts discuss a new breed of elevated genre films that are drawing arthouse production and sales companies into the game. Moderated by Patrick Ewald, CEO of Epic Pictures.

In the days ahead, I hope to cover highlights from some of these discussions along with other points of interest from the 23rd installment of AFM.

Until then, scop on!