American Film Market ‘25 Debrief: Who’s Buying, What’s Selling, and What’s Next [If Anything]
- Gato Scatena
- Nov 20
- 8 min read
Updated: Nov 24
A Market Defined by Absence
The American Film Market 2025 at the Fairmont Century Plaza felt different the moment you stepped into the lobby. Not “lighter” or “consolidated,” but genuinely quiet in a way that even those of us who survived the Loews era, the Le Méridien era (“year”), and yes — the strangely enthusiastic Vegas experiment of 2024 — couldn’t fully recognize. Entire buying blocs that once reliably filled hallways were reduced to a handful of familiar faces. Europe was sparse. MENA was even sparser. LatAm was nearly invisible. And the most striking absence came from Asia, which traditionally sends one of the strongest buyer presences of the entire market. This year, they simply did not show up.
The shock for upper-tier N.A. sellers wasn’t subtle when Well Go USA skipped AFM entirely. Well Go isn’t just another buyer; it’s a foundational part of the North American acquisition ecosystem, especially for downstream services used by companies like Saban. And while Saban attended — as Saban always does — and continued its aggressive pursuit of premium genre fare, the absence of its closest ecosystem partner was impossible to ignore. It signaled something deeper than scheduling preference: it signaled major structural recalibrations happening in real time.
A few North American sales reps handling prestige films in the $5–10M range were booked wall-to-wall, but that was the exception. For the vast majority of the indie world — the middle and lower mid-tier films that make up over 85% of global production each year — buyers weren’t booking meetings – because they weren’t there. Sellers dramatically outnumbered buyers, and while S&R Films held its ground (our catalogue sits in the upper mid-tier, and we’re continuing to expand internationally), the bigger concern was what this means for filmmakers walking into 2026 without a clear understanding of how dramatically the waterline has shifted.
International Buyers Are Squeezed Like Never Before
A major part of the thin turnout comes from what’s happening overseas. Buyers in territories across Europe, Asia, and Latin America are experiencing the same thing North American distributors went through three years ago: the bottom falling out of Pay-1 and SVOD. Consolidations — like Encripta buying 50% of A2 — are creating less calendaring opportunities, fewer outlets, smaller margins, and more conservative buying patterns. Where a buyer once took twelve films, they now take one to five. If they buy at all.
This recalibration is happening at the same time sellers are evolving into hybrid entities — part sales agent, part distributor. Companies like ours, as well as larger entities, are increasingly distributing directly into foreign territories, especially when rights remain unsold after a full cycle of Cannes, TIFF, AFM, and Berlinale. International buyers see this. They know that if they don’t act quickly, films might eventually hit their territories anyway — without them. That tension is pushing buyer conservatism to new levels.
The Coming AI Dub Renaissance at the American Film Market
Dubbing was a dominant topic at AFM, and the implications were everywhere. AI-driven dubbing is improving rapidly, and while it’s not fully there yet, it’s close enough that any smart sales agent or distributor is planning for a world where dubbing into ten languages costs what subtitling a single language cost ten years ago. This will shrink the world for distributors with catalog volume. It will not empower filmmakers to suddenly self-distribute — relationships, leverage, and libraries still matter — but for catalog holders, the cost-to-value ratio of expanding internationally is about to change in a significant way. Never mind the influx of visual “dub” tech coming down the pipe like Flawless AI.
TIFF Has the Ball v. AFM with 2 Minutes on the Clock
The unspoken truth running through AFM was that TIFF may become the dominant fall market, and buyers are recalibrating their year around it. TIFF’s formalized market, September timing, and reasonable cost structure have made it the Cannes of the fall. Nearly every buyer who attended AFM admitted that TIFF was their priority next year — and AFM was a “maybe,” not a guarantee.
And TIFF didn’t underperform in 2025. So AFM became, in many buyers’ words, “a second-chance market.” Combined with AFM’s rising exhibitor fees and November timing — which collides with holidays, production cycles, and Q4 spending freezes — the result is simple: AFM is no longer the first stop for fall acquisitions.
The Genre Landscape: What Actually Sold
The genre signals this year were clearer than ever. True action — the kind with real car chases, explosions, and scope — remains the consistent global driver. Not “thrillers with a chase scene,” but legitimate action cinema. Slashers remained white-hot and continue to outperform expectations across nearly every territory, often without cast. Coming-of-age films can work if they maintain a PG-13 tone. Dramas remained commercially inert unless tied to major festivals. Family-friendly films continue to be strong for airlines, hotels, and programmers, but filmmakers should be thinking more Hallmark than Netflix Family. Sci-fi also maintained traction —but only when the films were finished and visually strong. Presales for sci-fi were nearly nonexistent – they all want to know how the VFX will actually look so they’re mostly “wait to screen.”
