San Sebastian CIC: 10 Takeaways on AI, Equity, YouTube Hits — SkimNews
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- The San Sebastian Creative Investors' Conference, now in its fourth year and co-organized with CAA Media Finance, convened against a backdrop where the global TV sell market sits at just 75% of peak TV levels, per Ampere Analysis, while Christine Vachon described U.S. independent production as "basically fucked up."
- Neon distribution head Elissa Federoff called the record summer U.S. box office a "phenomenal" recovery, noting cinemagoers are now "younger, Millennial, Gen Z and even younger" and that most filmgoers now discover movies via social platforms rather than traditional channels.
- "Obsession" and "Backrooms" — both adapted from viral YouTube content — dominated panel discussions, with panelists arguing creators Kane Parsons and Curry Barker "brought their own audiences" and are forcing distributors to rethink how they market and release films.
- Producer Rodrigo Teixeira predicted international films will comprise 60% of the Best Picture Oscar category within five years, citing financing difficulties for U.S. filmmakers and noting he is now shooting films in Brazil, Romania, Chile, Argentina and Lebanon.
- Spain's SETT sovereign venture capital fund, part of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and financed by EU Next Generation funds, has deployed €216 million across 15 operations generating €445 million total investment by taking equity stakes up to 49% in audiovisual companies.
- Ryan Kavanaugh's Acme AI & FX told the conference AI can cut below-the-line movie costs by two-thirds and reduced one film's shoot schedule from 70 to 19 days on a film shot entirely on a gray stage, positioning AI as a pre-visualization and budgeting tool rather than a creative replacement.
- Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín unveiled a new TVOD service called Pijama targeting the 80–85% of major-festival titles that never secure distribution, with right holders receiving 80% of revenues and an upload fee of $100 for two years.
Why it matters: With the TV market still 25% below its peak and U.S. independents struggling, the conference's loudest signals were about new financing mechanisms — U.S. equity flowing into European productions, Spain's €216M state-backed equity fund, and Larraín brothers' Pijama platform for orphaned festival films — plus AI tools that Kavanaugh says can cut below-the-line costs by two-thirds, reshaping the economics of mid-budget filmmaking.
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