Despite the growing trend towards self-distribution, AFM is still a hugely important event in the industry, and something to which we should all pay attention. I spoke with AFM’s Managing Director Jonathan Wolf on Wednesday about his opinions about the show and the general state of the industry. Here’s what you need to know as a producer
1. Asia’s importance as a territory is growing.
This should come as a surprise to precisely no one; at least no one who has been paying attention to industry trends. However by the numbers, buyers from Asia represented 30.7% of total buyers, and 28.3% of total buyer companies attending AFM.
Surprising, right? Everything you read is that presales are a dying business, but according to Jonathan Wolf, AFM’s Managing Director, about 60% of the business done at this year’s AFM was in presales. This means more than half a billion USD in presales alone. 
I have accepted that cinema is an ever-evolving medium. But I never expected our heritage to be at stake. This post is not a podium for me to exclaim film is superior to digital, nor will I be stating the digital conversion (or DC) was a poor decision of the industry. As a society furthering itself in the Digital Revolution, the DC was the most obvious future for the way we exhibit motion pictures theatrically. But I never expected this:
