A24's $200M 'Elden Ring' Epic Leads a Genre-Heavy Slate at AFM

By Marcus Bennett

A reported budget of $175 million to $200 million makes A24 and Bandai Namco's "Elden Ring" the biggest project at this year's American Film Market. Amazon MGM Studios has already pre-bought the sci-fi fantasy adaptation, with Alex Garland directing Kit Connor, Ben Whishaw and Cailee Spaeny. A24 handles sales.

The market's headlines, though, spread far beyond one epic. Buyers at AFM face a slate heavy on genre fare, star-driven biopics and at least one film made with artificial intelligence.

What does AI mean for the market?

Zack London, known online as Gossip Goblin, has built a film empire on YouTube. He makes his feature debut with "Gods Don't Give Gifts," an animated sci-fi horror epic made with AI and sold internationally by AGC Intl. The film is set in the Second Cycle of Humanity, where transhumanism has accelerated so far that people barely look human. Across four unsettling stories, ordinary men and women reach for strange new tools to satisfy primal hungers, exposing a widening rift between body and mind.

Star vehicles and biopics

Marco Bellocchio, the revered Italian auteur, directs "Falcon," a biopic of Sergio Marchionne, the auto executive who saved Fiat and Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy. Pierfrancesco Favino ("Maria") plays Marchionne, Louis Garrel plays John Elkann, heir to the Agnelli family behind Fiat, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi rounds out the cast. Rai Cinema International Distribution sells it.

FKA Twigs stars as "Josephine Baker" for director Maïmouna Doucouré. The film follows the legendary performer who left the U.S. to become a Paris superstar and played an important role in the French Resistance during World War II. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor also stars. Studiocanal sells the Bien Ou Bien Prods. production.

Sacha Gervasi ("My Dinner With Hervé," "Anvil! The Story of Anvil") directs "Darlington," an original comedy-drama starring Renée Zellweger, Dominic Sessa and Peter Dinklage. Rocket Science sells the film, produced by Rocket Science, Monumental Pictures and Portobello Electric.

Paul McCartney produces and writes original songs for "High in the Clouds," Toby Genkel's animated tale about self-expression through music. The voice cast includes Himesh Patel, Celine Dion, Hannah Waddingham, McCartney himself, Idris Elba, Lionel Richie, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Fallon, Clémence Poésy, Pom Klementieff and Alain Chabat. CAA Media Finance and Gaumont handle sales.

Horror leads the genre pack

Horror dominates the lineup:

• "Found Alive" — "Piggy" director Carlota Pereda's English-language debut stars Chloë Grace Moretz and Rupert Friend. Based on Carla Norton's book series "The Edge of Normal," it opened the 2026 Sitges Film Festival. CAA Media Finance and XYZ Films sell domestically.
• "Get Rid of It" — Ry Russo-Young directs Daisy Ridley, Sosie Bacon and Simon Rex as sisters on a cross-country road trip who discover the thing growing inside Harper after a one-night stand with a drifter may not be human. David Lancaster produces; Upgrade, CAA and Range sell.
• "Inferno" — Bryan Hill, of HBO Max's "Titans," writes and directs Vera Farmiga as a former detective pulled back into Scotland Yard's long-rumored occult division, the Black Branch. Manifest Pictures sells internationally; CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group handle domestic.
• "Sketchbook" — Jamie Jones directs Woody Norman and Billie Piper. Norman plays 14-year-old Osian, back home from foster care, who finds a cursed sketchbook that makes anything drawn inside it come true. Westend sells.
• "State of Emergency" — Greg Yaitanes directs Brittany O'Grady as a Boston 911 dispatcher haunted by her brother's death and the missed call he placed in his final moments, as catastrophe looms over Boston Harbor. FilmNation Entertainment sells.
• "Making a Bridesmaid" — Molly Ratermann directs Emily Kincaid, Ratermann and Serra Naiman in a comedy-horror about two outcast sisters trapped in an '80s-inspired sleepover from hell. Belstone Pictures sells.

Comedies and thrillers round out the slate

Jim Gavin directs "Boutique," in which an American tourist played by Paul Giamatti travels to the eerie English seaside town that inspired his favorite reclusive author, played by Simon Pegg, and becomes entangled with a murderous secret society. Manifest Pictures sells internationally, UTA Independent Film Group domestically.

Jessica Alba stars in "The Fun Lady," Andy Tennant's comedy based on the true story of a woman who starts selling sex toys after her picture-perfect life falls apart. Highland Film Group sells internationally.

Jeff Daniels leads "The Reception," Trudie Styler's Scotland-set ensemble comedy about a lavish wedding reception that spirals delightfully out of control after the groom abandons the bride at the altar. Beta Cinema sells.

Adam Rehmeier's "Seeker" follows Grant (Cooper Tomlinson), a ride-share driver haunted by his fiancée's unexplained disappearance five years earlier, whose life upends when he picks up a passenger he is convinced is responsible. north.five.six sells internationally, CAA Media Finance domestically.

What does this lineup change for buyers? It signals that AFM is leaning hard on proven genre formulas and bankable stars, while a $200 million pre-sold epic and an AI-made feature test the market's outer edges.