San Sebastián’s fifth Creative Investors’ Conference, co-organised with CAA Media Finance, is framing itself as a two-day temperature check on film and TV money. The speaker list announced for the September event puts US specialty distributors, European sales executives, Latin American producers and Spanish public capital in the same room at Tabakalera.
The throughline is less about star power than about financing mechanics: what budgets are being approved, where public money is stepping in, and whether new distribution windows can offset streamer caution.
Spain’s public capital takes centre stage
The clearest number comes from SETT, the sovereign venture capital fund at Spain’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. It has invested €215.6 million ($252.3 million) into Spain’s film, TV, video game and new technology sectors. According to conference organisers, that has sparked a further €230 million ($269.1 million) in matching private-sector investment.
SETT audiovisual director María Coronado will make the case for co-investment alongside private-sector partners. For international producers and media buyers, that is a useful template: public money is not replacing private capital, it is being used to unlock it.
The market’s central questions
- The New US Landscape: Neon’s Elissa Federoff, Pastel’s Adele Romanski and Sumerian Pictures’ Rob Williams look at what has changed in US theatrical and budgetary behaviour.
- Europe’s Current Challenges & Opportunities: StudioCanal’s Ron Halpern, BTeam’s Alex Lafuente, Why Not’s Pauline Lamy and De Maio Entertainment’s Lorenzo De Maio discuss scale, cost and opportunity.
- A New Approach to Streaming: Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín introduce Pijama, a TVOD platform they are positioning as a game-changer.
- From Local to Global: RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira, behind Oscar-winning I’m Still Here, explains the shift in his production strategy.
- What The Market Wants: Charades, Black Bear International, CAA Media Finance and Media Capital Technologies compare buyer appetite.
The inclusion of Pijama and a US landscape panel on the same agenda matters for streamers and media planners. One side is investing in a direct-to-viewer premium window; the other is managing a US specialty market that has had to adapt to shorter windows and more demanding audiences. Elsewhere on the agenda, a closing session on the future features Acme AI & FX’s Ryan Kavanaugh, Madison Wells’ Rachel Shane and Patrick Wachsberger of 193.
Cannes brings private investors to the table
In a further development, San Sebastián is partnering with the Marché du Film-Festival de Cannes and its Investors Circle programme. A select group of private investors will join the conference for workshops, mentoring and closed-door exchanges with industry professionals.
Festival director Jose Luis Rebordinos framed the event as a necessary response to an unstable moment. “At a time when so much is changing in the film industry, it is so important to host a Conference like this,” he said.
The practical takeaway for our audience is that the financing stack is becoming more layered: sovereign funds, private equity, pre-sales, platform minimums and branded content are being mixed in ways that reduce any single buyer’s power. The San Sebastián programme is a live map of that change.
Source: Variety
