Faith-based content was a hot topic among filmmakers who attended the 2024 American Film Market (AFM) in Las Vegas last week due to the genre’s growing popularity.
AFM is a global entertainment industry marketplace where buyers and sellers go to network, pitch, finance, and acquire. Other global film marketplaces include the Cannes Film Festival in France, the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada.
“Conversations about faith and values and inspirational content at AFM this year feels like there’s more awareness and there’s a peak of things happening,” Angel Studios Chief Distribution Officer Jared Geesey told The Epoch Times.
Angel Studios, a film studio and streaming service in Utah, is known for faith properties such as the TV series “The Chosen” and the movies “Cabrini,“ ”Sound of Hope,“ ”Sweetwater,“ and ”Sight.”
Last year, Angel Studios ranked among the top 10 highest-grossing film distributors, following Universal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate, and 20th Century Studios.
“We had our QR code at our AFM booth where people could submit their projects, and we had 30 film submissions just this week,” Geesey said. “Not all of them will be a fit, of course.”
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AFM 2024, organized by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), began on Nov. 5 and ended on Nov. 10. There were participants from 80 countries, along with 286 sales, production, and distribution companies.
“We attend and participate in all of the global markets because we want the filmmaking community to understand who Angel Studios is so they can start recognizing the kinds of stories that audiences want and that Angel is a path to get them,” Geesey said.
In January, Angel Studios will unveil the film “Brave the Dark,” which is about a teacher who tries to save a troubled teen from prison, and “Rule Breakers” in March, which is about members of the Afghan Women’s Robotics Competition team who stand up against the Taliban.
Faith-based is a term describing film and TV content with religious or spiritual undertones and storylines.
Producer and cinematographer George Burt is angling to enter the faith-based film market because the projects sell, he said.
For example, “Cabrini,” released on March 8, grossed $20 million worldwide.
“Faith films are key for the industry’s future, but it’s something that not many filmmakers discuss,” Burt told The Epoch Times. “That’s why I’m very keen on bringing it and making it a bigger part of the film markets.”
Burt attended AFM’s 45th edition partly because he added a faith-based arm to his production company.
Known for action, horror, and thriller movies, such as “Joe Baby,” starring Ron Perlman and Harvey Keitel, Burt is committed to producing faith-based content in 2025 but finds the genre suffers from a stereotype.
“When I talk to people about doing faith films, they think these stories are trying to convert people,” he said. “Once we break down that stigma, the floodgates will open.”
Representatives from AFM declined to comment, but Cineverse CEO Chris McGurk argues that faith-themed films have a bright future.
Cineverse, a content distributor, has two faith channels, “Dove” and “Christian Cinema,” among its streaming channels. Other channel offerings include “Screambox” for horror film enthusiasts and “Docurama” for documentary fans.
“Dove is one of our most successful channels,” McGurk told The Epoch Times. “So we’re very focused on that.”
McGurk was a panelist on AFM’s “Killing It at the Box Office: How Cineverse’s Horror Sensation Won Opening Weekend,” along with Cineverse Senior Vice President of Marketing Lauren McCarthy.
McGurk executive produced “#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead,” which premiered this year at the Tribeca Film Festival to an enthusiastic audience.
In “#AMFAD,” a group of college friends rent an Airbnb to attend a music festival, but the weekend takes a turn for the worse as they are each murdered one by one.
“Faith content is a completely different business than our horror business, but we think faith content has a lot of the same elements in terms of the communal experience and the theater call to action to go and see it,” McGurk said. “We’re actively looking for faith projects.”
