Note: All content on this website is thoughtfully created using advanced AI tools and is carefully reviewed and verified by our team before publication. If you spot any errors, please contact us — we appreciate your feedback!
A new film market is looking to create fresh inroads for genre-focused projects.
Jonathan Martin, a filmmaker who is also the founder and director of genre festival FilmQuest, and Jon Fitzgerald, a festival director, filmmaker and curator who co-founded Slamdance, have announced the creation of the FilmQuest Market. Launching next year, Marin and Fitzgerald are co-founders and partners on the project, which is set to platform genre-focused fare and run alongside the festival in Provo, Utah.
“I think we could do something very different,” Martin says. “We don’t want this to just be another AFM or just mimicking everybody else. What can we bring that adds value to the industry and to the market space? Obviously, there’s business-to-business, but how do we actually educate, inform, get people excited about coming to a marketplace again? When we look at it, most successful markets have a film festival attached to it and that kind of experience, so that’s some of what we were looking at.”
FilmQuest launched in 2014 and just wrapped its most recent edition on Nov. 1. This year’s programming included more professional sessions under the fest’s Camp Cthulhu banner, including classes on casting, stunt performance, screenwriting and alternative distribution — the latter taught by Fitzgerald himself.
Join ScoopOK Social for Update Private News Alerts!
“It was partially an experiment to say, ‘Okay, how does this flow work if I put this many labs and workshops as a part of the festival?’ I’m learning little bits and bobs how to now make this a part of a market, but different,” Martin says.
Fitzgerald, who has overseen several film markets, including Abu Dhabi, Slamdance and American Film Conference, says that the educational aspects will set the market apart from other opportunities, and FilmQuest was a perfect proof of concept.
“People are standing up in the back and staying around for questions and introductions,” he says. “They want to learn. Even if people know the basics — they can read an article and figure out what distribution means, and they know who A24 and Neon are — they don’t know about alternative distribution. They don’t know that there are a zillion opportunities to take charge of their release. They don’t know who the players are, and because genre is such a hot topic and fan base that’s evergreen, people will come. They can do market screenings, just like they do in Cannes, for filmmakers who may not have been invited to the festival, but still want to screen their film. We can have a whole bunch of materials and resources. I’m a big fan of providing filmmakers with toolkits and curriculum to help advance their careers.”
Martin also believes the educational aspect can help the business end of the industry beyond artists as well.
“Throw in distributors and maybe even sales on top of it,” he says. “Not every single one of these people is a filmmaker. They don’t know all the films that are out there. They might have their finger on the pulse and know some of them, but they might not be as aware of the trends that maybe a film festival is, because we’re getting a couple thousand submissions. We’re seeing certain things before others are seeing them. So how can we apply that to the market? The impetus of what we want to do is, ‘How can we improve the industry through a market?’”
The pair is also eager to launch the market in 2026 and then tweak it as needed — including potentially expanding beyond genre filmmakers.
“Even if it’s not in its full glory, there’s enough that we can do in our first year to introduce it, and it’ll just grow,” Fitzgerald says.
Importantly, the duo has the backing of the City of Provo, which is in a growth pattern, with more hotels and venues being built downtown. They’re eager to bring economic impact to the community as well.
Ultimately, Fitzgerald points to previous successes at fests like Slamdance to show how FilmQuest Market can succeed.
Join ScoopOK Social for Update Private News Alerts!
“We all know Hollywood’s broken, but we also know film festivals are the lifeblood of emerging talent,” he says. “They go on to do other things, whether it’s Wes Anderson or, the list is pretty long … We showed Christopher Nolan’s first movie, the Russo brothers. All these guys came out of festivals. So why can’t we grow and lean into that and do more than just screen a film? There’s more that you can do with a market in this culture: ‘Here’s the resources, here’s the masterclass, here’s the workshop and here’s the retreat. Let’s go have some fun.’”
Martin echoes the sentiment, and thinks the festival’s vibe can change the industry into something a bit more joyous.
“We want the free and cool rock n’ roll spirit of FilmQuest to translate to the market experience, where films and the business of films and filmmaking is fun again,” he says. “Where the market itself feels like the film camp community of FilmQuest, and is a place people don’t want to leave and look forward to coming back to over and over again. It’s that ideology I believe we can imbue and add to the market space that will both excite and entice.”
