By Liza Foreman
A bevy of high-power American executives hit the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Tuesday for the 2nd edition of the Creative Investors’ Conference. That conference serves mainly to put a spotlight on business beyond Europe. The film festival is Spain’s most important, with a strong focus on the local market. Despite recent movement towards resolution of the industry strikes, the U.S. star quotient at San Sebastian is minimal.
The conference, taking place at the Basque country’s trendy Tabakalera cultural center September 26-28, launched with the panel: Challenges and Opportunities in the Shifting U.S. Landscape. The opening session began with an announcement regarding the tentative agreement for industry writers.
Panelist Tendo Nagenda, a producer at 10 by Ten, said: “Ultimately our business of film is constantly reinventing itself, so coming out of the strike is an opportunity to tell more stories every day.”
Jeb Brody, President of Production at Amblin Partners, addressed the strike: “Certainly the strike has impacted everything. It’s very hard on different companies of all sizes, especially in the development phase. It’s definitely going to be a problem for the next little while. It’s been tricky for a couple of years, but suddenly, because it’s all been taken away for a couple of months, there’s a real enthusiasm for people to come back to work. We are having more conversations around the storytelling.” Other speakers at the opening event include Sarah Colvin (Director of Acquisitions at Neon), and Kiska Higgs (President, Production & Acquisitions at Focus Features).
Panelists from the United States on Tuesday said more risk-taking distributors and smarter films would help create added momentum to the business. The inaugural Creative Investors’ conference, last year, saw one of the largest contingents of U.S. execs in the festival’s history, helped by the clout of co-host CAA.
Amblin Partners Brody shared: “Our friends at Neon and A24 have proven there’s still a market for more tricky content. But there are no longer ten companies ushering in edgy filmmaking. It’s now three or four.
“These days, to be a great movie, it has to combine genres, be better. People have become meaner about films they don’t like,” Brody added.
There was no reinventing the business wheel at the panel – just the confirmation of hard-won experience and risk taking and instincts paying off.
“It’s proven that if you stand out that’s what works. It’s hard to take a bet on Australian YouTubers but we try,” said Neon’s Sarah Colvin.
Kiska Higgs of Focus Features added: “So far we have just bought what we like, and it has worked for us.”
Panelists agreed that financing is out there for indie films, but costs need to come down.
“I just financed a film that is creatively risky,” said producer Nagenda about The Book of Clarence. “There is financing out there for creatively inventive projects. I haven’t seen a ton of money out there for slates. Before I lived in the big budget space. Those budgets kept changing. There was a lot of inflation.”
Viewing habits as well as the time and patience invested by viewers was also addressed by the panel:
“You are in competition with the entire history of cinema being in my pocket right now. Audiences will give TV shows more of a chance. They will watch two episodes. If it’s a film, they will give it 20 minutes.”
Other panels at the two-day event include today’s talk: The Global Film Industry: State of the Union 2023, and tomorrow’s: Crossing Borders with Strategic Relationships, and The Global Market for Spanish-language Content.
Other speakers at the conference this year include Marc Dujardin (President of Le Collectif 64), David Grumbach (CEO of BAC Films), Juan Gordon (co-founder of Morena Films) and David Davoli (President of International of Anonymous Content).
The three-day conference is part of Spain’s post pandemic recovery program Spanish Screenings XXL’s Financing & Tech initiative. The festival runs through September 30, 2023.
