The theme for the 2026 American Film Market is “The New Global Screen Economy,” and AFM wastes no time addressing a rapidly changing industry right out of the gate with talkbacks on artificial intelligence, digital storytelling, and more.
One panel, More Than a Trend: Rise of Creator Filmmakers, put a spotlight on one of the breakout movements of this decade: Digital creators making the leap from social media to the silver screen.
Moderated by IndieWire’s Brian Welk, the conversation featured Jackie Brenneman, the President and CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (The organization that puts on AFM yearly,) the Founder and CEO of Creator Revolution Monica Khan, and Fassa Sar, the founder of Callo—the official collaboration platform for AFM 2026, where participants can find collaborators, projects, and beyond.
Photo Courtesy: Dan Steinberg
“Callo serves this new generation, giving them the infrastructure to develop projects…We see an opportunity to extend that ecosystem and give more people a way to participate, connect, and launch what they’re building.” Sar said of the Callo platform, “It’s clear the marketplace is changing rapidly. The people entering film and television today don’t necessarily look like the people who built the industry before them. We’re seeing creators with audiences enter for the first time.”
2026 especially saw a trend of online creators breaking into Hollywood. Curry Barker’s Obsession has been the talk of the town since its wide release in May of this year, earning over $500 million at the global box office on a roughly $750,000 budget. A24’s Backrooms also opened to a similar level of success, the film’s director Kane Parsons got the studio’s attention with his viral web series of the same name and premise. Veteran Youtube creator Mark Fischbach (AKA Markiplier,) released his film Iron Lung in January of this year and, despite an initial slated release of only 60 independent US theaters, a grassroots word of mouth campaign reached theater chains AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Entertainment Group, among others. As of the official release, the film showed in over 4,000 theaters—all this stemming from his built-in audience.
“We’re talking about young filmmakers who have been making things for already a decade or more,” said Brenneman, challenging traditional views held by many in the industry. She spoke of exhibitors who had initially overlooked Iron Lung due to the lack of a conventional marketing campaign, who went on to be surprised by the film’s success. “You are absolutely missing other Iron Lungs,”
Now, Hollywood is seeing a kind of gold rush, executives hunting for the next online IP, or next talented digital creator, and AFM (and the Callo platform,) is as good a place to find them as any.
“The rules and business models that have long defined our industry are being reinvented, creating new ways for projects to be developed, financed, and brought to audiences.” Brenneman added in a statement, “We’re excited to partner with Callo to give our community a smarter way to discover the people and opportunities most relevant to them…and create new possibilities for collaboration and business.”
