Inside the 2026 San Sebastián-CAA Media Finance Creative Investors’ Conference

Acme AI & FX’s Ryan Kavanaugh, Laura Austin-Little at Black Bear International, Neon’s Elissa Federoff, StudioCanal’s Ron Halpern and Sumerian Pictures’ Rob Williams are confirmed for San Sebastián’s fifth Creative Investors’ Conference, co-organized with CAA Media Finance.

They will join CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland, Killer Films’ Christine Vachon, Patrick Wachsberger at 193 and Sumerian Pictures’ Rob Williams, among U.S. delegates.

The Creative Investors Conference also features sessions with some movers and shakers on the Latin American film-TV scene, Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, at San Sebastián to talk up game-changing TVOD platform Pijama, and Rodrigo Teixeira of RT Features, behind “Paper Tiger” and Oscar-winning “I’m Still Here,” and now ever more embracing global cinema. At his session, From Local to Global, he looks set to explain why.

From 2022, speakers like Sutherland, Wachsberger and Goodfellas Vincent Maraval have laid it on the line on how to confront challenges in the U.S. (cost, contracting budgets, unreliable tax breaks) and Europe (most recently, the need to scale), plus more promisingly, an evolution in U.S. theatrical audiences.

An update on all these issues looks likely to be on the table on two central panels, The New U.S. Landscape and Europe’s Current Challenges & Opportunities. Maraval will deliver a Goodfellas’ insight on the market, which promises to be as ever bracingly iconoclastic.

There’s also a new kid on the block and at the conference: Spain’s SETT, a sovereign venture capital fund at Spain’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, which has sunk invested €215.6 million ($252.3 million) into Spain’s film, TV, vid game and new technology sectors, sparking matching private sector investment of a further €230 million ($269.1 million). María Coronado, SETT director of audiovisual, looks set to explain why, other panelists, including private-sector partners, the benefits of SETT co-investment.

In a further development, the San Sebastian Festival is partnering with the Marché du Film-Festival de Cannes and its Investors Circle program to bring a select delegation of private investors to San Sebastian’s Creative Investors’ Conference. Participants will take part in the Conference program, dedicated educational workshops, and receive private mentoring and exclusive exchanges with top international industry professionals.

“At a time when so much is changing in the film industry, it is so important to host a Conference like this, to welcome these experts to share their insights with each other and with the festival’s industry badge-holders, as well as having important networking sessions and meetings between the global experts and the Spanish film industry,” said San Sebastian Film Festival Director Jose Luis Rebordinos.

The program:
Tuesday, September 22
Tabakalera, Pl. de las Cigarreras, 1 – Prisma (5th floor)
10:00-10:30 Investing for Growth: SETT and Spain’s Audiovisual Industry
Moderation: Wendy Mitchell (San Sebastian Film Festival Delegate and Advisor)
Speakers: Ibon Cormenzana (Casa Mundo Cero), María Coronado (SETT), José Manuel Pacheco (Aurora Media, Secuoya Content Group) and Santiago García (Itaca Films)
10:35-11:15 The New US Landscape
Moderation: Paul Getto (Animo Strategies)
Speakers: Elissa Federoff (Neon), Adele Romanski (Pastel) and Rob Williams (Sumerian Pictures)
11:30-12:05 Insights From Goodfellas
Moderation: Roeg Sutherland (CAA Media Finance)
Speaker: Vincent Maraval (Goodfellas)
12:10-12:35 A New Approach to Streaming
Moderation: Wendy Mitchell
Speakers: Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín (Pijama & Fabula)
12:50-13:20 From Local to Global
Moderation: Wendy Mitchell
Speaker: Rodrigo Teixeira (RT Features)
13:25-14:00 Producing and Financing Across Borders
Moderation: Zac Ntim (Deadline)
Speakers: Liza Marshall (Hera Pictures), Heejeon Kim (Barunson C&C), Christine Vachon (Killer Films)
Wednesday, September 23
10:00-10:45 What The Market Wants
Moderation: Phil Hunt (Headgear)
Speakers: Carole Baraton (Charades), Laura Austin-Little (Black Bear International), Sarah Schweitzman (CAA Media Finance) and Raj Singh (Media Capital Technologies)
10:50-11:10 Brands and Film: What’s Working
Moderation: Wendy Mitchell
Speaker: Jae Goodman (Superconnector Studios)
11:30-12:10 Europe’s Current Challenges & Opportunities
Moderation: Tim Dams (Screen International)
Speakers: Lorenzo De Maio (De Maio Entertainment), Ron Halpern (StudioCanal), Alex Lafuente (BTeam Pictures), Pauline Lamy (Why Not Productions)
12:15-12:50 Rethinking the Old Models
Moderation: Wendy Mitchell
Speaker: Lars Sylvest (Thank You Pictures)
13:10-14:00 Looking Towards the Future
Moderation: David Taghioff (CAA Media Finance)
Speakers: Frederic Fiore (Logical Pictures), Rachel Shane (Madison Wells), Patrick Wachsberger (193), Ryan Kavanaugh (Acme AI & FX)