Leading U.S. Film Companies Inform IFTA They Won’t Return To Las Vegas For AFM In 2025 & Will Set Up Their Own Market & Screenings In LA If Need Be; IFTA Responds

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: A group of leading U.S. film sales companies have informed American Film Market (AFM) 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 LA, 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”.

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 LA but we’re aware from sources within the alliance that there is doubt that a wholesale and satisfactory move of the market back to LA can be arranged in time for 2025.