San Sebastián gathers film financiers for fifth investors' meeting
The people who pay for films are heading to San Sebastián this week.
The festival's fifth Creative Investors' Conference runs on September 22 and 23, co-organised with CAA Media Finance, the agency unit that structures film financing and sales Variety. It is a closed industry meeting, built around panels and private networking rather than premieres.
The guest list spans studios, distributors and sales companies. Confirmed names include Ryan Kavanaugh of Acme AI & FX, Laura Austin-Little of Black Bear International, Elissa Federoff of Neon, Ron Halpern of StudioCanal and Rob Williams of Sumerian Pictures.
U.S. delegates also include Roeg Sutherland of CAA Media Finance, producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films and Patrick Wachsberger of 193. María Coronado, director of audiovisual at Spanish state holding SETT, is listed as a speaker on the Investing for Growth panel.
The programme digs into how films get funded and sold. One session, The New US Landscape, is moderated by Paul Getto with Federoff, Adele Romanski of Pastel and Williams as speakers.
Another session, From Local to Global, features Rodrigo Teixeira of RT Features. Vincent Maraval of Goodfellas will lead a session titled Insights From Goodfellas, moderated by Sutherland.
Filmmaker Pablo Larraín and producer Juan de Dios Larraín will take part in a session on Pijama, a TVOD platform, meaning a pay-per-title streaming service where viewers rent or buy individual films.
For audiences, this means the business end of the festival. Deals struck in these rooms decide which scripts get shot and which finished films reach cinemas.
The conference sits inside Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech and is backed by Spanish government industry funding. This year San Sebastián is also partnering with the Marché du Film-Festival de Cannes and its Investors Circle programme to bring private investors into the room.
