15/09/2026 - The festival will once again organise several discussions on the hot topics of the film industry as well as the Zinemaldia Startup Challenge

A moment from last year's Creative Investors’ Conference (© Pablo Cifuentes/SSIFF)

The San Sebastián International Film Festival will host its fifth annual Creative Investors’ Conference on 22 and 23 September. Leading financiers, producers, distributors and other key figures from the film industry will participate in discussions, networking activities and private meetings, once again organised in collaboration with CAA Media Finance and Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech.

The topics that the discussions will focus on include the shifting landscape of the US industry; challenges and opportunities specific to Europe; lessons learned from sales executives; producers who are financing and shooting films across borders; new streaming models; the ways the Spanish industry is scaling up; how tech innovations are reshaping the content industries; how filmmakers can learn to work in smarter ways with brands; and how global thought leaders are preparing for the changes coming in the near future.

The conference will welcome several companies for the first time, including A24, Acme AI and VFX, Black Bear International, Madison Wells Media, Media Capital Technologies, Pastel, Piano, RT Features, StudioCanal, Sumerian Pictures and Why Not Productions.

The top global executives and experts attending are Elisa Alvares (Tower Peak Partners), Laura Austin-Little (Black Bear International), Efe Cakarel (MUBI), Maite Carpio Bulgari (Garbo Produzioni), Julio Chavezmontes (Piano), Juan de Dios Larraín (Fabula and Pijama), Anders Erdén (Orogen Entertainment), Lorenzo De Maio (De Maio Entertainment), Elissa Federoff (Neon), Frédéric Fiore (Logical Pictures Group), Paul Getto (Animo Strategies), Jae Goodman (Superconnector Studios), Anita Gou (Kindred Spirit), Ron Halpern (StudioCanal), Phil Hunt (Head Gear Films), Ryan Kavanaugh (Acme AI and VFX), Axel Kuschevatzky (Infinity Hill), Pauline Lamy (Why Not Productions), Lavaille Lavette (One Street Studios and Pan African Film Fund), Alexandra Lebret (Axio Capital and Together Fund), Vincent Maraval (Goodfellas), Liza Marshall (Hera Pictures), Teresa Moneo (Good Chaos), Matías Mosteirín (K&S Films), Adrien Nussenbaum (Yapluka/Palatio Films), Gary Raskin (Sherborne Media), Dimitri Rassam (Yapluka/Chapter 2), Andy Roa (A24), Adele Romanski (Pastel), Andrea Scrosati (Fremantle), Rachel Shane (Madison Wells), Raj Singh (Media Capital Technologies), Lars Sylvest (Thank You Pictures), Rodrigo Teixeira (RT Features), Christine Vachon (Killer Films), Patrick Wachsberger (193), Michael Weber (The Match Factory/MUBI) and Rob Williams (Sumerian Pictures).

Furthermore, in a new collaborative initiative, San Sebastián is partnering with Cannes’ Marché du Film and its Investors Circle programme to bring along a select delegation of private investors. Participants will take part in the conference programme, while also benefiting from a dedicated programme of educational workshops, private mentoring and exclusive exchanges with top international industry professionals.

Jose Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, says, “We have been thrilled to see the Creative Investors’ Conference grow in influence in its first four years. 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 badgeholders, as well as having important networking sessions and meetings involving the global experts and the Spanish film industry.”

Also as part of Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech, a new edition of the Zinemaldia Startup Challenge, a competition for Spanish and European business projects that seeks to promote new entrepreneurial projects based on new technologies applied to the audiovisual field, is also taking place this year. A selection of projects will be presented to the professionals on 24 September, after which three awards will be handed out: €30,000 for the Best Spanish Project, €10,000 for the Best European Project and a Special Mention for Entrepreneurship (€3,000). Find out more about the projects here.