May 2023 6 still view the AFM as a theatrical market even though it has morphed into a TV market. The traditional Loews hotel location closed for renovations in March and will reopen late this year. Le Méridien is a fourstar hotel with nine floors and 299 rooms, normally priced at $339 per night for a standard room. The hotel and the homonymous chain was founded by Air France and built in 1981. It is now part of Marriott. The AFM moved to Santa Monica in 1991 from various hotels in West Los Angeles and remained at Loews ever since. The last in-person market was held at Loews in 2022. Earlier this year the IFTA announced, “Because this is a new venue, we will provide more visual references for office choices and work directly with you to identify the best match for your business needs and budget. Buyer Registration will open on July 5, and we will offer a range of buyerspecific benefits, including a new Buyer Concierge, Buyer’s Lounge, and a full schedule of screenings in theatres as well as on-demand. Industry Attendee Registration will also open on July 5 with a variety of badge options for you to accomplish your AFM goals.” Added IFTA’s Prewitt, “The Le Méridien has a wider range of room sizes so it offers exhibitors more choices as to size and price points, including lower cost options.” Pricing varies from $7,200 for a mini standard office to $60,000 for the 9th floor suite package. Meeting tables, including two exhibitors’ badges, go for $5,500 each. AFM parking will stay the same as in the past with exhibitors able to purchase parking at the hotel, valet parking, and the beach lots still available with Beach Lot 4 South being the primary offsite lot. AFM shuttle services will be available to and from the beach lots and the other hotels in Santa Monica. The owners of Loews Santa Monica Beach did not renew Loews Hotels & Co’s management agreement, and as of March 4, 2023, the hotel was no longer operated by Loews. In January, reps for the Loews hotel announced that it was set to close and lay off 320 staff members. The venue is being made part of IHG Hotels & Resorts, which itself is part of the Strategic Hotels & Resorts group. The iconic, Pacific-facing property will be rebranded as the Regent Santa Monica Beach. After 29 years at the Loews Santa Monica Hotel, the American Film Market will be changing venues for its 2023 edition, moving its event 800 meters east to the Le Méridien Delfina on Pico Boulevard (pictured at right), an 11-minute walk from the Loews. “This is a long-term move for AFM,” said press officer Jennifer Garnick. The calendar dates, however, will stay around the same time of year as in the AFM’s past. This year’s edition will take place October 31- November 5, 2023, meaning that it will begin exactly 11 days after MIPCOM ends in Cannes. The forced relocation could have given AFM organizers the perfect excuse to move the market to a date that would be more conducive to doing business since it continues to fall right after the end of MIPCOM, a major market, and also at the end of film buyers’ budgeted funds for the year. “The reasons supporting AFM’s date haven’t changed,” said Jean Prewitt, CEO of the IFTA, the Los Angeles-based film and TV association that organizes the AFM. “The industry needs a market at this time as the bookend to Cannes six months earlier.” This statement is a clear indication that the powers that be at the IFTA AFM Changes Venue, But Not Its Spots World (Continued from Page 4) (Continued on Page 10)
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