The Tier 1 Markets: Where Your Biggest Deals Will Close

Not all markets are equal. These four sit at the top of every sales agent’s calendar for one reason: volume. Hundreds of millions in MGs get negotiated here annually. If your project’s ready, you need to be here.

1. Cannes Marché du Film — May, Cannes, France

The biggest film market for content licensing on the planet, full stop. Over 12,000 industry professionals from 110 countries attend annually. The Marché runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival—which means prestige and commerce collide in one location. Sales agents send out slates 2-3 weeks before the market opens. By the time you land at Nice airport, the serious conversations have already started. Theatrical rights, streaming windows, territory splits across France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia—it all moves through here. And yes, you’ll close deals at the bar of the Majestic at midnight. That’s just how Cannes works.

2. American Film Market (AFM) — November, Santa Monica, California

The AFM is the largest film content licensing market in North America—8,000+ professionals, 400+ production and distribution companies, and a focused deal-making atmosphere that Cannes, frankly, can’t match. No film festival running alongside it. Just business. Buyers walk the hotel floors at the Loews Santa Monica, screening rooms run all day, and MG contracts for US, Canada, Latin America, and worldwide rights get structured here every November. It’s where gap financing discussions happen in real time—sales agents recalibrate territory estimates mid-market based on buyer feedback. As we outlined in our guide to leveraging film markets for sales success, your AFM strategy should be set at least 6 weeks out—not 6 days.

3. European Film Market (EFM) — February, Berlin, Germany

The Berlinale’s EFM has become the co-production capital of the year. Running alongside the Berlin International Film Festival—which hands out the Golden Bear—the EFM draws 10,000+ participants from 130 countries. Where it differs from Cannes and AFM: the European focus is explicit. Co-production treaties, Eurimages funding discussions, and MEDIA programme deals dominate the room. If your project has a European financing component or you’re targeting German, French, or Scandinavian distributors, February is non-negotiable. Public broadcasters like ARD, ZDF, and Arte attend to commission and acquire. But don’t underestimate the American and Asian buyers—they show up in force.

4. Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Industry — September, Toronto, Canada

TIFF is where acquisition teams from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and A24 make their annual splashes. A strong TIFF premiere can close a worldwide streaming deal in 48 hours—sometimes before the credits finish rolling. The festival premiered 250+ feature films from over 70 countries in 2024, creating an acquisition feeding frenzy that starts days before opening night. But here’s what the trades won’t always tell you: the real deals—the ones that don’t make Deadline until a week later—happen in private suites and breakfast meetings, not at the main screenings. TIFF’s industry programming (Co-Pro Market, Producers Lab) makes it essential for development-stage deals too.

TV & Format Markets: Where Series Rights and Licensing Contracts Move

5. MIPCOM — October, Cannes, France

MIPCOM is the world’s largest television and streaming content licensing market—13,000+ delegates from 110 countries, 4,000+ companies buying and selling scripted drama, unscripted formats, documentary series, animation, and reality. Broadcasters, OTT platforms, and SVODs all attend. Netflix, HBO, Peacock, Disney+, Canal+—they’re all there. So are regional buyers from MENA, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America who are becoming increasingly aggressive acquirers as Sovereign Content Hubs in Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and UAE accelerate their local content investments. Our full MIPCOM 2024 market coverage breaks down the key deal categories in detail. This is where Rolla Karam, SVP of Content Acquisition at OSN—the premium platform covering 23 countries across MENA—makes major multi-territory licensing calls for her network.

6. MIPTV — April, Cannes, France

MIPTV’s the spring equivalent—smaller than MIPCOM but still 8,000+ attendees and critical for format rights, documentary licensing, and early-stage series acquisitions. It’s become a key moment for buyers to lock in content ahead of the summer programming schedules. Kids’ content and animation deals are particularly strong here—MIPJUNIOR runs alongside it, making the week essential for children’s entertainment licensing.

7. Series Mania — March, Lille, France

Don’t sleep on Series Mania. What started as a niche festival has become one of Europe’s most important TV series licensing and co-production events. The Forum component—the market side—is where European and global broadcasters scout series for acquisition and co-production. Arte, BBC Studios, RAI, TF1 are fixtures. And with European original drama hotter than it’s been in decades, the deal flow here accelerates every year. If you’re a producer with a high-concept drama, March in Lille deserves a line in your budget.

The Festival Acquisition Circuit: Prestige That Converts to Deals

Festivals aren’t markets—but they’ve become deal-making environments. A world premiere at the right festival can close a worldwide streaming rights deal faster than six months of market-by-market presales. Here are the ones that convert prestige into term sheets.

8. Sundance Film Festival — January, Park City, Utah

Sundance is the acquisition frenzy that kicks off the calendar year. Independent acquisitions happen fast and loud here—Netflix, Amazon, A24, Neon, Sony Pictures Classics all send acquisition teams with real budgets and real authority to close. According to Variety, acquisition deals at Sundance regularly exceed $10M–$20M for breakout titles in the documentary and dramatic competition programs. The window is narrow—you’re competing with every other hot title premiering the same week. But a Sundance deal can recoup a significant portion of your budget before theatrical even opens.

9. Venice International Film Festival — September, Venice, Italy

Venice is the oldest film festival in the world—and its market footprint has grown considerably. The Biennale Cinema runs the Venice Production Bridge, where co-production and distribution deals get structured for projects from development through post. Venice’s positioning just ahead of TIFF means it’s often the first international showcase for films that then close US distribution deals in Toronto days later. The premium content licensing pipeline—from arthouse European cinema to Hollywood prestige titles—runs directly through this September window.

10. Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR) & Berlinale — February, Rotterdam/Berlin

IFFR’s CineMart co-production market runs alongside the festival, specifically focused on projects in development needing production financing and international partners. Combined with the EFM in Berlin the same month, February has become the most active co-production deal-making period outside Cannes. CineMart alone has connected 300+ projects with financing partners across its history—and the deals don’t require a completed film. That’s distinct from every other event on this list.

Phil Hunt (Founder & CEO, Head Gear Films) on why closing deals at today’s film markets requires a fundamentally different approach to presales and packaging:

Regional Content Markets: The Sovereign Hub Shift You Can’t Ignore

11. Hong Kong FILMART — March, Hong Kong

FILMART is Asia’s largest entertainment market—900+ exhibitors from 40+ countries. But it’s not just about Asian content for Asian buyers. It’s where global studios and streamers negotiate Asia-Pacific licensing rights en masse—China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia. The co-production market component has grown significantly as Chinese and Korean production companies seek international financing partners. According to Screen International, FILMART’s deal volume has consistently grown year-over-year as APAC platforms accelerate content acquisition budgets.

12. ATF (Asia TV Forum & Market) — December, Singapore

ATF is the end-of-year regional market anchoring the Southeast Asian content licensing calendar. 10,000+ attendees from 60+ countries. Singapore’s position as a regional HQ hub for global streamers—Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max all have regional operations here—makes ATF a natural convergence point for APAC content deals. Format rights, reality format licensing, scripted drama co-production: it’s all on the table in December. And the deals you don’t close at MIPCOM in October often get wrapped up here.

13. Ventana Sur — December, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Latin American content finally has a properly scaled content licensing market in Ventana Sur—backed by the Marché du Film (Cannes) and the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA). 2,500+ participants from 60+ countries. Brazilian, Mexican, Colombian, and Argentine producers use it to license into European and North American markets while incoming buyers from Netflix and Prime Video scout LATAM originals. The market timing—December in Buenos Aires—makes it a natural deal-closing event before year-end budget cycles reset.

14. MIP Africa — Cape Town, South Africa

Africa’s content licensing infrastructure is developing fast—and MIP Africa sits at the center of it. Nigerian Nollywood output, South African scripted drama, Kenyan documentary production: the continent’s content is finding international buyers. OSN in MENA, Canal+ in Francophone Africa, and global streamers including Netflix (which has invested aggressively in African original content) all participate. Our guide to navigating international content markets covers the Africa licensing opportunity in detail—don’t dismiss it. The growth trajectory is real.

15. Kidscreen Summit — February, Miami, Florida

Kidscreen Summit is the exclusive conference-market for children’s entertainment licensing—2,500+ delegates from 50+ countries. If you’re in animation, kids’ live action, or family content, this is where the content licensing infrastructure for your genre lives. Nickelodeon, Disney, Netflix Family, Amazon Kids+, Cartoon Network—they send acquisition executives with specific content mandates. And the ancillary licensing potential—merchandise, format adaptations, digital rights—gets discussed here in ways that don’t happen at any other market. It’s also where producers looking to understand our definitive content licensing framework can apply it most directly in a single-genre environment.

Your Annual Film Markets Content Licensing Calendar

Timing your project’s market strategy matters as much as where you go. Here’s how the year stacks up:

How to De-Risk Your Market Strategy Before You Board the Plane

Walking into Cannes or AFM without intelligence is expensive. Not just in flights and hotels—but in missed deals, wrong pitches, and time burned with buyers who aren’t actually acquiring your content category this cycle. The Fragmentation Paradox is real: 600,000+ companies in the global film/TV ecosystem creates opacity that benefits insiders and punishes operators who rely on stale relationships and 6-month-old trade data.

Here’s the practical pre-market intelligence framework the serious operators use. First, identify which buyers are confirmed attending—not just which companies attend in general, but which specific executives are coming and what their current acquisition mandate looks like. Second, map your project against their recent acquisition history. If a buyer hasn’t touched your genre in 18 months, that relationship pitch at the bar isn’t going anywhere. Third, understand the MG landscape for your territory set before you walk in—you’re not negotiating blind.

And send materials 2-3 weeks before the market opens—not the day before. Every sales agent knows this. The buyers reviewing submissions mid-market are doing it on their phones between meetings. Your package needs to be in their inbox before they leave for the airport.