Other key talking points: the rise of equity finance to counter pre-sales shortfall, and Pyjama, a groundbreaking TVOD service from Pablo Larraín It wasn’t just a sea breeze and late summer sun which brought a sense of new airs and targeted optimism blowing through the San Sebastian’s 2026 Creative Investors’ Conference. For four years, CIC, co-organized with CAA Media Finance, has insisted on upsides and opportunities in drastic post-COVID and post-peak TV downturn. 2026 presented one clear example, in record summer U.S. box office — so panelists talking up dramatic U.S theatrical rebound. Other interviewees spoke large about new sources of energy galvanizing — and complicating — the sector: the build of select national industries around the world, and an ever growing involvement of equity investment in financing.
That said, the market at large in TV sell belabors at 75% of peak TV levels, as Ampere Analysis points out. Huge problems in key markets, moreover, remain. One case in point: In Christine Vachon’s lapidary phrase, U.S. independent production is “basically fucked up.” “I think it’s a recovery; it’s a phenomenal result,” said Neon head of distribution Elissa Federoff at a key first day CIC panel, The New U.S.
We’ve seen opportunities for new pathways during this point,” added Federoff, a major cheerleader for optimism at the Conference. Those pathways run through the very phenomenon, the explosion of social media, which was once seen as detracting from cinema audiences. Cinemagoers now mostly find their movies on social media, Federoff notes.
It is creating fandom, new audiences, with most cinemagoers now “younger, Millennial, Gen Z and even younger,” she noted. Launched in June 2025, and moving waves with its pick up of “Josephine” at Sundance, Sumerian Pictures often targets an audience that parent company Sumerian Records has been able to build on the music side, which is a younger audience that obviously cares about music,” noted Williams. Playing to social media, distributors are looking for movies to create conversations around,” noted Adele Romanski at producer Pastel Pictures.
This context does much to explain the excitement around films like queer epic “La Bola Negra,” winner of the often Oscar predictive TIFF People’s Choice Award, which has a pop sensibility, mainstream reach and embraces the LGBTQ cause. That same phenomenon is also felt in Europe. We have freedom of speech, and in the U.S., without freedom of speech, it’s difficult to get financed.” Certainly, Teixeira, who broke out producing U.S. independents — “Francis Ha,” “The Witch” — is now, beyond movies from James Gary, such as “Paper Tiger,” is now shooting films all over the world: in 2025 two in Brazil and Romania, and one in the U.S., Chile, Argentina and Lebanon.
Another factor driving international: co-Production. The complexity is there, but it’s worth navigating it because it’s a thriving industry,” said De Maio. And yet, international is hurting in multiple key markets and a myriad of ways.
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