The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) should grow beyond its four days in Busan into a platform that runs all year, director Ellen Y.D. She adds that public money for the market has not grown alongside it. Kim calls the idea ACFM 365.
It would be a permanent database and matchmaking service that joins the market data in The A Report with the matching work now done by the Asian Project Market (APM) and the Busan Story Market. Her five-year targets include regular publication of The A Report and a standing leaders’ forum built on The A Summit. She also wants Cinema by Brand to become a financing model of its own and the Asian Cinema Fund to partner with international funds.
More delegates from Latin America, the Arab world and Africa could lift the number of countries represented past 60, and possibly above 70. National funding for ACFM has stayed at the same level for two years running. The film industry is small in scale, but it is the front-runner that opens the way for other industries.
Supporting film is an investment, not a subsidy, and a market needs to be understood as industry infrastructure, not as an event.” ACFM is in its 21st edition this year. Last year, industry registration rose 14.4% and overall attendance rose 13.5%. This year there are 339 exhibiting companies and institutions from 32 countries and territories, 17% more than last year.
Tech exhibitors went from seven to 18, and national agencies and film commissions from 62 to 79. Thailand, the market’s first Country of Honor, has 28 exhibitors. Japan, the ProducerHub Focus Country, has 46.
Kim credits curation for the growth. The market kept its core strands and added ProducerHub, InnoAsia, Doc Square and The A, and these drew people who had never attended a market before. This year’s additions include an Investor Summit, microdrama sessions and Cinema by Brand, which pairs film productions with brand partners.
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