If you’re reading this, you already know that the economics of independent films are getting tougher. With costs of everything going up and returns going down, everyone is looking for ways to spend their capital more efficiently. But at the same time, film has always been a labor of love, and cutting too many corners could ruin the art form entirely.
This tension was at the center of The New Playbook for Independent Film: From Financing to Distribution in the Age of AI, presented by Clever Caboose. Held at The American Pavilion at Cannes, the conversation featured four executives on the cutting edge of the industry (Viviana Zarragoitia, Executive Vice President, TPC; Torsten Ruether, Writer/Director/Producer, CEO, Hello Moment Productions; Josh Spector, Vice President of Acquisitions & Production, Grindstone Entertainment; and Ryan Black, Entertainment Account Executive, Luma AI) discussing the business models that actually work in 2026. Moderated by Clever Caboose Founder and CEO Andrei Bulawka, the panel was all about embracing change without losing what matters.
Nobody on the panel denied that AI is becoming part of the film industry. But they stressed that serious filmmakers who save money with AI often do so by using it to craft more efficient strategies, not replacing human artists with it.
“I think AI is becoming a tool, especially for independent film,” Zarragoitia said. “You can have some cost savings as part of your budget. I think a lot of independent producers are finding it worthwhile that there is this tool that keeps their costs low and minimal that they can integrate.”
“Most of the films that are trying to get greenlit are having similar issues. Which is ‘Okay, we need to figure out a way to either shave a day off the schedule or a hundred thousand dollars off my budget,” Black added. “It’s more on the production end of things. Finding efficiencies to help enable to get it greenlit by bringing some costs down early on.”
The panel was filled with a refreshing sense of optimism, with the panelists offering hope that the ever-resilient independent film community will find ways to embrace AI without losing the element of human craftsmanship that we love about film.
“We have to consider all the tools, and we do. There’s a lot of fantastic tools, no doubt about it,” Ruether said. “But what I also think, and I guess everybody here is with me, we have to protect the soul of it. Not lose the soul, protect the soul, and consider all those tools with a lot of sensibility.”
Watch the complete panel in the video above.
