(L to R): Stars with projects looking for buyers at AFM 2026: Patrick Schwarzenegger, Daisy Ridley, Josh Brolin, Renée Zellweger, LaKeith Stanfield, Julianne Moore Getty The American Film Market’s 47th edition, taking place Nov. 10-15 at the Fairmont Century Plaza, AMC Century City and The Pavilion in Los Angeles, arrives at a moment of near-total disruption for the independent film business. The models that have long underpinned financing, production and distribution are in flux, squeezed by consolidation, changing audience habits and a market in which the traditional routes to getting a film made and seen are no longer a given.
But the upheaval is also opening doors. A new generation of online creators-turned-filmmakers — Curry “Obsession” Barker, Kane “Backrooms” Parson and Mark “Iron Lung” Fischbach among them — is proving that audiences can be built outside the traditional system and carried onto screens.
“Oddly, every independent success is still seen as a fluke, or gets put in a bucket,” says Jackie Brenneman, the new head of IFTA, which runs AFM. “What’s not being seen is that almost none of these films should have happened, because the structure of the business doesn’t support independent film. That they’ve broken through the way they have is just the tip of the iceberg of demand. Once we build the infrastructure to connect audiences with the stories they want across all different screens, the numbers are going to be much bigger.”
That sense of untapped demand is echoed by international sellers, some of whom are returning to the market after time away. Among them is South Korea’s Finecut, back at AFM after several years with the animated feature Long Long Night, from Korean director Kyu Bock Youm, which follows a rhino and a penguin as they journey across the wilderness together. “As one of the last markets of the year, AFM is an important opportunity to introduce titles launched after Cannes to buyers, particularly for North and Latin America,” says Finecut sales manager JD Kim. “Considering the trajectory from Parasite to K-Pop Demon Hunters, I believe global interest in Korean culture and content remains strong.”
THR’s 2026 Hot List of the titles generating buzz at AFM spans star-led packages, international genre plays, animation, prestige dramas and films at various stages of production. The common thread is a search for projects — and business models — that can find their audience in a rapidly changing independent landscape.
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‘Almost You’
Image Credit: Lisa O'CONNOR / AFP, Gareth Cattermole, Stephanie Augello Almost You
DIRECTOR Matt Lipsey
STARS Juno Temple, Joey King, James McAvoy
BUZZ AI and grief collide in this high-concept tale about a robotics engineer mourning her younger sister, who feeds years of messages, videos and social media posts into an AI replica of her. The invention brings comfort — at first — before forcing her to confront a thorny question: if you could bring someone back, should you? A trio of Temple, King and McAvoy gives the timely premise some marquee value for buyers.
SALES Bankside Films, UTA
