Craziest thing you’ve seen at AFM?

“I remember a rival sales agent rehanging all of a competitor’s posters upside down overnight. The reactions in the morning were priceless.”
Gabrielle Stewart, SVP international sales & distribution, Exclusive Media

“The company in the office next door was raided by police, the company executives arrested and police tape strung across the doorway like in a scene from CSI. It was very dramatic and perhaps not unexpected.”
Mike Goodridge, CEO, Protagonist Pictures

“About two years ago at AFM, I cut my wrist opening a box of brochures. I called the Loews front desk and within 10 minutes they had an ambulance and three medics on call. They strapped my wrist up and sent me to hospital. That 10-minute journey and seven stitches cost me more than $1,000. They asked me if it was self harm. I said, ‘I work in the film business, of course it’s self harm!’”
Simon Crowe MD, SC Films International 

“There was a tall blonde girl in the lobby — a bimbo with fake boobs dressed in a pink cowboy hat, pink skirt and pink cowboy boots, singing country music to promote herself as an actress. Many non-serious producers were waiting to speak to her, inviting her for a drink. Meanwhile actors were picketing outside because of the SAG negotiations; there were no producers listening to them. It was two different visions of the industry.”
Loic Magneron, President, Wide Management

“The craziest thing I’ve seen in the halls at AFM was two Korean executives from competing distribution companies having an intense fist-fight over rights to a movie they’d both made an offer on.”
Lisa Wilson, Co-founder and partner, The Solution Entertainment Group

“In the late 1980s, as a junior exec, my boss handed me a large envelope stuffed with cash, a deposit from a Korean distributor. He yelled, ‘Count it and get it to the bank!’ I found a corner and counted out $60,000 in bills, but then realised I had to get it safely to the bank in Hollywood before it closed. Couriers were only allowed to carry $5,000 cash each, so I called 12 couriers and quickly wrote out 12 deposit slips. I got the strangest looks as they all lined up in the hallway and I handed each one their envelope with $5,000. Yes, it was stressful, but wire transfers just aren’t as exciting.”
Maura Ford, Company director, 7&7

“An eccentric-looking 92-year-old man, wearing a cowboy hat, came into our office brandishing a scribbled, handwritten sheet of paper, asking us to produce his ‘script’. He said he could reach out to Lauren Bacall to star,and thought that George Clooney could be good as her son. It showed that if anything, there’s always hope in this business… particularly in LA.”
Eve Schoukroun, MD, West End Films