American Film Market

While debate rages in America over the level of violence in entertainment programming, Hollywood continues to spew out a steady stream of graphic movies to the world, many that end up on video in foreign countries. For months Hollywood has been under siege by the White House, the Justice Department and segments of the public to clean up its act, forcing TV networks to tone down the content of shows and movie studios to boost production of family films. Yet, for the past week in sun-drenched Santa Monica, hundreds of international buyers are trekking to the Loews Hotel for this year's American Film Market, on the hunt for product to fill their theaters, video outlets and air waves in their respective nations.

The gig: Director of AFI Fest, the American Film Institute's annual film festival. In the two years that she's served as head of the event, Jacqueline Lyanga has traveled around the world to various festivals and screened hundreds of movies in an effort to hunt down the year's cream of the crop. She is busy presiding over this year's AFI festival, which kicked off last week with a screening of Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" and concludes Thursday with Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin.

More than 10,000 film buyers, sellers and gawkers are expected to converge here during the next week for the biggest-ever American Film Market exposition. The ninth annual event opened Thursday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, hoping to rival Cannes as an international marketplace. In addition to giving film distributors and producers a showcase for their latest wares, the Culver City-based American Film Market Assn.

When you're trying to decide whether to spend $11 or so on a movie ticket, you might be armed with all sorts of data -- coming attractions previews, reviews, recommendations from friends. The buyers at this week's American Film Market spend a lot more money -- occasionally millions of dollars -- sometimes equipped with not much more information than a film's title and plot. "We sell the dream of what the film has the promise to be -- it's in our imagination and the imagination of our buyers," said Alex Walton, whose Exclusive Media Group will be at this week's AFM selling worldwide rights to the Ron Howard-directed car racing drama "Rush," which stars "Thor's" Chris Hemsworth but has yet to start filming.

Asian buyers returned in relatively strong numbers this week to the American Film Market, the annual beachfront gathering in Santa Monica where foreign entertainment executives buy films for their theaters, TV channels and video stores. Still, the number of Asian buyers is nowhere near what it was in the mid-1990s before the economy there began to slide.

After 18 years with the Los Angeles-based American Film Marketing Assn., AFMA Executive Vice President Tim Kittleson has resigned. He will leave at the end of March, when his current contract expires. Kittleson--a former advertising executive--joined AFMA six months before the organization staged its first American Film Market. Since then, the market has become an important annual event in Santa Monica for buyers and sellers of international film rights.

The man from Sri Lanka steps double-time down palm-lined Ocean Avenue. He sweats and huffs and puffs as he ducks hurriedly from a bright, salt-air morning into a dark screening room. It may be only 9 a.m. in Santa Monica and 10 p.m. in his hometown of Colombo, but for Carlo Ponnampalam and the world of independently made movies, this week is High Noon.

The U.S. version of the Cannes Film Festival opens Thursday in Santa Monica sans the scantily clad starlets found at the famous French festival. But city officials are excited at the prospect of enhancing the city's image as an entertainment hub--and the potential revenues the event will generate. The city will put on its best face for the American Film Market, which will run from Thursday to March 8.

Hollywood has long issued warnings--silly as well as serious--that the Russians were coming. Well, the Russians are here. And they're targeting Hollywood. Their purpose: cinematic glasnost --not to mention commercial gain. The battlefield: the American Film Market, the world's largest motion-picture trade event that opened Thursday and continues through Friday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. (The market is not open to the public.) Representatives of more than 115 U.S.

When you're trying to decide whether to spend $11 or so on a movie ticket, you might be armed with all sorts of data -- coming attractions previews, reviews, recommendations from friends. The buyers at this week's American Film Market spend a lot more money -- occasionally millions of dollars -- sometimes equipped with not much more information than a film's title and plot. "We sell the dream of what the film has the promise to be -- it's in our imagination and the imagination of our buyers," said Alex Walton, whose Exclusive Media Group will be at this week's AFM selling worldwide rights to the Ron Howard-directed car racing drama "Rush," which stars "Thor's" Chris Hemsworth but has yet to start filming.

Paramount Pictures is betting it has the next "Paranormal Activity" on its hands. After weeks of spirited negotiations, the Viacom Inc.-owned studio acquired domestic distribution rights to "Area 51," the next low-budget scare story from "Paranormal Activity" filmmaker Oren Peli. Paramount announced the deal over the weekend, paying an estimated $7.5 million to close the pact, all without seeing any footage from the production. Other bidders included Lionsgate Films, Summit Entertainment and DreamWorks, now a part of Walt Disney Co. DreamWorks bought "Paranormal Activity," which then-partner Paramount released Sept.

ENTERTAINMENT A record 433 companies from 36 countries converged on Santa Monica for the opening of the American Film Market, the nation's biggest film bazaar. About 592 films are scheduled to be screened, a record for the event, which is produced by Los Angeles-based Independent Film & Television Alliance. Attendance is projected at more than 8,400 people. AFM runs through Nov. 8.

Last year, Ngo Thi Bich Hanh visited Los Angeles to meet with CBS executives to arrange the launch of a Vietnamese version of the game show "The Price Is Right." This week, Ngo was back in Southern California to explore whether the price was right for nearly a dozen Vietnamese feature films she was offering buyers at Santa Monica's annual American Film Market.

* The Los Angeles-based American Film Marketing Assn. trade group is changing its name to the Independent Film and Television Alliance. The group represents 150 companies worldwide that make, market, distribute and finance independent films and TV shows. It also organizes the annual American Film Market in Santa Monica.

Combining the art of film with the commerce of the movie business, AFI Fest Los Angeles and the American Film Market are joining forces. The American Film Market, at which independent films and TV productions are packaged, bought and sold, will move to November in 2004 to overlap with the AFI L.A. International Film Festival.

Japanese director Takashi Miike was in Los Angeles for just two days to talk about his controversial film "Audition." One of those days was Sept. 11. Maybe that's why he seemed uncomfortable discussing the graphic violence featured in the movie's climax. "Many people in many countries talk about the violence" in his films, Miike observes, speaking through an interpreter at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre. "I don't think violence should be hidden. It's ordinary, happening every day.

ENTERTAINMENT A record 433 companies from 36 countries converged on Santa Monica for the opening of the American Film Market, the nation's biggest film bazaar. About 592 films are scheduled to be screened, a record for the event, which is produced by Los Angeles-based Independent Film & Television Alliance. Attendance is projected at more than 8,400 people. AFM runs through Nov. 8.

Combining the art of film with the commerce of the movie business, AFI Fest Los Angeles and the American Film Market are joining forces. The American Film Market, at which independent films and TV productions are packaged, bought and sold, will move to November in 2004 to overlap with the AFI L.A. International Film Festival.

Jonas Rosenfield, the former president of the American Film Marketing Assn. who helped independent filmmakers compete with major studios in selling movies abroad through his ever-burgeoning annual American Film Market, died Wednesday. He was 84. Rosenfield, who retired from the trade group two years ago, died at his home in Pacific Palisades, according to his wife, former Times researcher Nina Green.

Stumbling across a "dot-com" in Hollywood these days is about as easy as running into a fired executive. For the first time, Internet companies this week ventured to the just-concluded American Film Market at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, hoping to bring U.S. sellers and foreign film buyers into the Internet age. They weren't at the annual movie bazaar a year ago for good reason: Most didn't exist.