Creative Risks, AI & Brazil’s Production Boom: Topics From Day One Of The 2026 San Sebastián Creative Investors’ Conference

There was a dynamic mix of perspectives, but an overall sense of optimism this morning at the San Sebastián Film Festival, where executives from across the industry gathered and debated on the first day of the Spanish festival’s Creative Investors’ Conference. This year marks the fifth year that the Creative Investors’ Conference has been held in San Sebastián. In several interviews ahead of this year’s edition, the festival’s longtime head José Luis Rebordinos, who is set to step down after 17 years at the helm, has named the conference as one of the festival’s greatest achievements during his tenure. And the industry event has indeed grown at a pace that is not common on the festival circuit. Visitors present at this year’s conference include execs such as Mubi’s Efe Cakarel and Ron Halpern of Studiocanal alongside producers like Juan de Dios Larraín, Adele Romanski and Rodrigo Teixeira. The conference runs until September 23. Here are some of the most interesting talking points from the first day. Watch on Deadline Who Is Taking Risks In The New American Landscape? The Creative Investors’ Conference has a general focus on the international industry, but this morning a session was dedicated solely to the U.S. market. Romanski joined Neon’s Elissa Federoff and Rob Williams of Sumerian Pictures for the session titled The New U.S. Landscape. So what is the new U.S. landscape? Partially, it is a space of recovery, Federoff said. “Every year since the pandemic, we have seen growth, and it’s been amazing to watch,” Federoff said. “I think it’s also really important to reset our expectations, because really we’ve gone through a lot in the U.S. marketplace. COVID happened, strikes happened, theater closures happened, and in that time, there has been a rise of a lot of other channels of entertainment, gaming, social platforms, streaming platforms. All of these things happened at the same time.” Federoff added that these confounding issues may have initially set the industry back a few steps, but they also provide new pathways. “We’ve seen incredible things happen on social platforms, and normally we might say, Oh, that’s detracting from our theatrical business. When in reality, we have seen some of our biggest films this year come from YouTube creators,” Federoff said. “It’s really nice to see that these creators are not only on these social platforms creating fandoms and new audiences, but they are then giving back to the cinema system. They want to make features.” Federoff added: “People like to see things in a very binary way, and really the two can coexist. We can have recovery, and we can have contraction, and sometimes that contraction can push us forward.” One of the most interesting companies emerging in this new landscape is Sumerian Pictures. The company launched last year as a film offshoot of the indie music label Sumerian Records. This year out of Sundance, the company acquired the buzzy awards title Josephine and The Incomer, starring Domhnall Gleeson. Discussing the company’s strategy, Williams said: “We’re doing about seven to eight films a year theatrically, which is a little bit less than a lot of other distributors, but we’re focusing on each one.” Romanski explained that she and her colleagues at Pastel are consciously working more on international co-productions. “It’s become a space that we’re moving into with intention where it makes sense for us to bring our U.S. equity to whatever regional funds,” she said, adding that they are currently working on three international co-productions. Interestingly, Romanski also said that major festivals like the Cannes Film Festival have become a much greater priority for her when completing projects, particularly those by first- and second-time directors. “From the U.S. perspective, it wasn’t always as important. Distributors were sometimes reluctant to spend the money to support a film going there,” she said. “But now, with debuts or second pictures from a director, I’m putting more value on giving that filmmaker the opportunity to matter internationally because that is where we’re actually seeing opportunity in terms of theatrical support and financing.” “The real frustration that I have is that everyone seems to be so risk-averse, and that’s something that we can’t quite figure out,” Romanski added. “It feels like people want safe, they want cast, they want IP. And sometimes it’s harder when you’re making the kinds of films that we’re making that are betting on new voices or just defy conventional analysis. We’re obviously making our way. And we’re very proud to continue to have a slate every year. But it is tricky.” AI There wasn’t as much discussion about Artificial intelligence as one might expect during today’s session. But Goodfellas CEO Vincent Maraval offered one of the more interesting interventions on the topic, telling the audience in San Sebastián that his company’s back office is largely operated by AI systems. “It helps us to have better organization and not lose time on things we don’t enjoy,” he said, adding that with the correct supervision, AI systems could provide filmmakers with tools to expand their creative output. “It could give young filmmakers the ability to push the boundaries of what they do, for example, the animated film Flow,” Maraval said. “This young guy made that on his computer without the usual software. Without his computer, it wouldn’t have been possible. We could also use AI to expand our creativity and imagination.” Maraval continued to say that AI was used extensively on Michel Hazanavicius’s latest feature, The Third Hand, which Goodfellas is selling. The pic is a WW1 drama with elaborate battle sequences. “Without AI, it’s ten days of shooting. With it, it’s two days,” Maraval said. The veteran exec was quizzed on how the software also, in turn, takes jobs away from professionals who would have worked on set during those ten days. Maraval pushed back, saying that with 10 days of additional production, the film very well might not have been made. The Brazilian Boom Brazilian producer Rodrigo Teixeira is one of the keynote producers at this year’s conference and sat down for a career Q&A. Teixeira spoke at length about his start in the international business and what he described as the current boom in Brazilian film production, led by Walter Salles’ Im Still Here and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s beloved Cannes breakout The Secret Agent. Teixeira produced the former. “They don’t represent the majority of the country. They are standalone directors and auteurs. They’re more than a country,” Teixeira said of Filho and Salles, adding that while the success the two filmmakers have found on the international stage cannot be easily replicated by all, it has raised the “self-esteem” of Brazilian artists. “We came from a very hardcore right-wing government for four years during COVID, which killed our industry,” Teixeira said. “And after this right-wing president, cinema became an act of hope thanks to Salles’ film.” Teixeira added: “If you change the self-esteem of a country, you create opportunities.” Elsewhere, Teixeira revealed that he is currently in the development stage with the next feature by American filmmaker James Gray. Teixeira has worked with Gray on his last three films, including his 2026 Cannes competition title Paper Tiger. Teixeira didn’t share any details about the film, but did say it is set to be shot next year. San Sebastián runs until September 26.