AFM parties - Frazzled execs welcome low-key affairs

Film lawyer's AFM parties pack plenty of indie punch - The Hollywood Reporter

There's nothing scandalous, no DJ playing loud trance music for an overflow crowd and no neighbors threatening to call the cops.

But Los Angeles-based attorney Patty Mayer has nonetheless become well known for her three days of parties thrown during the American Film Market.

Mayer's parties are casual but astutely calibrated soirees where a clutch of behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in the indie film world can get away from the lights, music and crowds of the market and relax at her cozy Culver City home where a home-cooked meal awaits.

As a partner for the past three years at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, Mayer specializes in transactional entertainment law, with a sub-specialty in international indie film finance. 

The idea for the parties sprouted from her former London law firm's cocktail parties in Cannes, which take place in a rented villa, as well as dinners she and two colleagues host during the Berlin International Film Festival.