AFM’s new headquarters at Le Meridien Delfina in Santa Monica has elicited strong opinions from attendees.
Inside the hotel’s often busy corridors and meeting places, several attendees expressed dissatisfaction over the AFM’s replacement for longtime venue Loews Santa Monica, with one buyer describing the venue as “pokey”, and many missing the Loews’ beachfront location.
Slow and crammed lifts were a common complaint. On Friday the fire department was called in to help passengers who had been stuck inside one of the two lifts serving the hotel’s lobby for more than an hour, according to multiple sources.
“The lifts have been the main source of complaint,” said Stephen Kelliher of UK sales outfit Bankside,
One attendee bemoaned the fact they had to trek across town to take meetings at four or five key hotels including the Viceroy, Casa del Mar and Fairmont Miramar, as well as the beachfront suites favoured for the past decade or so by a number of blue-chip US sellers.
“Buyers hate Le Méridien Delfina, and with everyone all spread out it’s just a mess,” one attendee grumbled.
A prominent salesperson said the market was “disjointed”, and added their voice to those who continue to advocate for a move to other locations such as Miami, Las Vegas, or Downtown Los Angeles.
However AFM has signed a multi-year deal with Le Meridien Delfina – believed to be three or five years – and market participants like to use their trip to Los Angeles to visit agencies, studios and streamers outside of AFM activity.
Others held a different view and expressed satisfaction. Hugo Grumbar of the UK’s Embankment Films, registered with the market but based off-site, noted: “AFM is still necessary, and it’s important to have the market in Los Angeles. Santa Monica is the right area.”
“The hotel is fine — it’s not like we had a choice,” added Caroline Couret-Delegue, from UK sales agent Film Seekers, who is also on the board of Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA), the producer of the AFM. “How many people complained about the Loews? And suddenly they’re here and they love the Loews.”
Cinema Management Group president Edward Noeltner was also positive: “The IFTA setup and support staff at the Delfina have been amazing.”
Sellers on the whole noted a reduced level of attending buyers from Europe, Australia, Japan and Latin America.
Attendees have also had to navigate the impact of striking hotel workers. Those staying at the Viceroy said the bar had to close early and bedrooms were not being cleaned regularly.
“It’s just not the environment you want,” said one UK seller.
The hotel workers’ activity chimed with the actors’ strike. The SAG-AFTRA work stoppage had entered its 113th day by Friday November 3 and there has been talk of an imminent resolution as union negotiators and their studios and streamer counterparts wrestled with AI regulation and the union awaited a response to its latest counter proposals.
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