Sellers Tell IFTA They Won’t Return To Vegas, Will Create Market

EXCLUSIVE: A group of leading U.S. film sales companies have informed American Film Market organizer IFTA (Independent Film & Television Alliance) that they won’t be returning to Las Vegas in 2025 and are prepared to set up their own bespoke market and screenings event in Los Angeles, such has been the unhappiness with the Palms Resort as a venue for this year’s recently concluded event.
AGC Studios, Lionsgate, FilmNation, Neon International, Black Bear, WME Independent, The Veterans and Voltage Pictures — which together account for a large portion of the major U.S. sales projects launching at any film market — make up the “informal” group.
In a communication seen by Deadline, the companies relayed to IFTA board chair Clay Epstein and President and CEO Jean Prewitt today that the “overwhelming consensus amongst this circle of companies and the many international and domestic buyers we’ve spoken to is that Las Vegas is definitively not the right location for a major film market and that The Palms is not a fit for purpose venue.”
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We spoke to two dozen delegates last weekend who were unhappy about the Palms and Vegas as a location for the market.
The group of sellers today acknowledged that “should IFTA, in a timely manner propose concrete and satisfactory plans to return the market to Los Angeles next year we will all consider participating.”
The group says its hope is for a “unified event” in L.A., but we’re aware from sources within the alliance that there is doubt that a wholesale and satisfactory move of the market back to L.A. can be arranged in time for 2025.
The group continued in their communication with IFTA today: “In the meantime we also want you to be aware that we are moving ahead with plans to host our own bespoke market and screenings event in Los Angeles next year, most probably immediately before your main AFM begins so that buyers have the opportunity to attend both gatherings.”
We understand that multiple venues are being discussed by the collective.
The companies ended by saying: “We all remain open to any meaningful communication there is to be had about returning AFM to Los Angeles”.
When contacted by Deadline for comment, IFTA Chairperson Clay Epstein told us in response to the missive: “We are all passionate about our industry and keeping it strong. This continues to signify that a market in November is crucial to all of our businesses. We appreciate the transparency and opinions of these companies, and the points they have conveyed will be part of our discussions as the IFTA Board of Directors plans for the future.”
This year’s AFM wrapped on Sunday. The confab was plagued by negative reviews from delegates who complained about long queues at the Palms elevators, bad lobby experience, poor food options, the expense and lack of atmosphere. Above all, many missed the opportunity to combine the AFM with other meetings in Los Angeles. Among bright spots, some praised the screening venues and the office space, and others visited attractions like The Sphere.
Epstein and Prewitt defended the Vegas choice to us over the weekend, saying the Palms emerged from an extensive search across a handful of cities, ticking off boxes on accessibility, price, screening rooms and sheer availability.
Asked if AFM is locked into Vegas, Epstein said he couldn’t discuss confidential contract points but indicated that a change could be possible.
“The goal … is certainly to do what’s best for the community and the industry,” he told Deadline on Saturday. “And if that means staying in Vegas, we’re going to do everything we can to make that work. And if that means … an alternative has to happen … we would look at whatever that alternative is. And I think that’s kind of what’s important.”
Prewitt told us that no good options were available in Los Angeles this year and that she hoped IFTA could learn from the feedback this edition to make Vegas a better home if required. L.A. “is not a conference town,” she claimed. “We went out to a lot of different hotels, and they either didn’t have the dates, or they would not take their beds out. It was … too expensive. There were no screens nearby.”
She noted that a number of potentially suitable hotels are or will be undergoing renovations ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Inevitably, the balancing act is a difficult one for organizers given the different priorities, resources and scale of the companies involved in a market such as AFM. Interests can’t always be aligned. A number of companies began peeling away from the AFM’s main Loews venue in recent years. It could be that that separation becomes more pronounced in 2025. Or perhaps a compromise will be reached.
There has been growing concern among the independent sales and distribution community about the viability of AFM, not only logistically but existentially. That uncertainty looks set to continue.
The U.S.-based Independent Film & Television Alliance, which organizes AFM, has a membership of more than 140 independent sales, production, distribution and finance companies. AFM relocated to Le Méridien Delfina Hotel in Santa Monica for the 2023 event after more than 30 years at the Loews Hotel in that beachside city west of downtown L.A.