AFM Voices Shaping Tomorrow’s Screens

By Pickle  November 8, 2026

Share:

Who can help the screen business turn disruption into durable value? Pickle brings together 30 voices from AFM’s speaker programme and Innovation Hub/AFM House listings, arranged around six themes: capital, data, production, creators, audiences and international opportunity.

Capital & Strategy

Mapping Media

Evan Shapiro (United States), founder and CEO of ESHAP, turns the changing media landscape into maps, essays and pointed industry commentary. His Media Universe Map and podcasts connect corporate strategy with shifts in audience behaviour. For producers and distributors, his value lies in challenging inherited assumptions about where attention, influence and sustainable screen businesses are heading.

Attention Economics

Hernan Lopez (United States), founder of Owl & Co, connects audience attention with enterprise value through his Streamonomics framework. The Wondery founder and former Fox International Channels chief now examines vertical video and emerging storytelling businesses . His perspective is useful for separating fashionable formats from business models that can turn viewing time into lasting commercial value.

Independent Ambition

Glen Basner (United States), founder and CEO of Film Nation Entertainment, combines filmmaker relationships with international financing and sales expertise. His public conversations emphasise adaptability, early distributor involvement and protecting distinctive creative voices. He is worth hearing on how independent companies can retain ambition while changing their commercial structures, rather than allowing market uncertainty to dictate every creative decision.

Global Independence

Stuart Ford (United States), chairman and CEO of AGC Studios, has built independent businesses spanning development, financing, production and international sales. His interviews connect creative risk with financial discipline , arguing that budgets must fit identifiable audiences and realistic markets. For producers seeking international scale, he offers a practical perspective on making ambitious projects without abandoning commercial responsibility.

Financing Reality

Phil Hunt (United Kingdom), co-founder and CEO of Head Gear Films, brings the perspective of a financier operating across film, television and games. His YouTube interviews examine shrinking revenue windows, lending and portfolio risk. Listen for an unsentimental assessment of what buyers want, which budgets are defensible and how independent producers can structure projects that remain financeable.

Independent Enterprise

Steven Paul (United States), chairman and CEO of SP Media Group, combines independent production, international sales and distribution experience. His AFM appearance addresses the proposed federal production incentive and the economics of keeping filmmaking competitive. He is worth hearing on how policy, financing and ownership of intellectual property can strengthen the business foundations of independent cinema.

Data & Rights

Smarter Greenlights

Tobias Queisser (United States), co-founder and CEO of Cinelytic Group, focuses on decision intelligence rather than AI-generated entertainment.

Cinelytic combines film and talent analytics, financial models and forecasting tools to inform business decisions. His relevance lies in helping producers question assumptions about projects and release strategies, while distinguishing useful analytical support from promises that algorithms can guarantee hits.

Predictive Pitching

Alex Gocke (United States), vice president of sales at Largo.ai, connects filmmaking with data-driven development and commercial decision-making. Largo’s Cannes Next pitching programme brings AI forecasts into conversations with financiers and distributors. His perspective is useful for producers exploring how audience analysis and financial modelling can sharpen a pitch without allowing predictive tools to dictate creative choices.

Voice Ownership

Louise Edwards (Sweden), founder and CEO of Voxifyer, is building a business around licensed digital voices and human identity rights. The platform places consent, ownership and payment at the centre of voice production and localisation. Her perspective matters as producers seek multilingual reach and production efficiencies without treating performers’ voices as unrestricted raw material for artificial intelligence.

AI & Production

Production Intelligence

Benjamin Lock (United States), principal AI executive at Amazon MGM Studios, works with filmmakers and department heads on adopting generative AI within production. His background spans Lucasfilm, Aardman, Framestore and ILM . He matters because the next AI debate needs production experience: where tools genuinely remove friction, expand creative choices and support directors, rather than simply generating impressive demonstrations.

Responsible Innovation

Joanna Popper (United States), CEO of Laurel Beach, works across AI strategy, emerging media and film production. Her experience includes CAA, HP, immersive storytelling and industry innovation initiatives . She is an important voice on moving beyond technological novelty towards production choices that balance creative integrity, operational value and responsible adoption, especially for companies deciding where experimentation belongs.

Digital Humans

Ed Ulbrich (United States), founder of Ulbrich Advisory, connects decades of visual-effects leadership with AI production strategy. His career includes Digital Domain, Benjamin Button’s digital-human breakthrough and neural-performance work at Metaphysic. He offers a grounded perspective on integrating new tools into complex productions, where creative ambition must meet technical reliability, secure workflows and the realities of delivery.

Hybrid Craft

Conrad Curtis (United States), production and partnerships lead at Beeble, connects physical filmmaking with AI-assisted visual effects. His work centres on relighting, virtual production and preserving filmmaker control, informed by more than fifteen years in production. He is worth hearing on whether emerging tools can survive real shooting conditions and improve workflows rather than merely deliver impressive demonstrations.

Creative Acceleration

Jethro Rothe-Kushel (United States), co-founder and CEO of Ritual Ads, brings commercial-production experience to human-directed, AI-powered filmmaking. His Cannes Lions interview with Under Armour explores AI’s role in creative work. For the screen economy, he offers a useful perspective on faster experimentation, audience-facing marketing and retaining creative judgement as new tools reshape how promotional content is produced.

Creators & Communities

Creator Enterprise

Monica Khan (United States), founder and CEO of Creator Revolution, helps creators and brands build scalable, audience-led businesses. Her experience at YouTube, Meta and Spotter informs her writing and speaking on modern media strategy . Listen for how creator relationships can become a lasting business capability, rather than a promotional add-on attached to a film after production ends.

Creator Ownership

Tyler Chou (United States), founder and CEO of Tyler Chou Law for Creators and CreatorArq M&A Advisory, brings legal and transaction expertise to creator businesses. Her LinkedIn and YouTube commentary covers copyright, licensing, negotiations and exits. She matters wherever online popularity must become defensible ownership, better contracts and a business that retains value beyond an individual platform.

Creator Studios

Mickey Meyer (United States), president of Global Creator Studios at Blink49 Studios, develops film and television opportunities with digital-native storytellers. His background includes Maker Studios, JASH and Group Nine Studios, connecting online audiences with longer-form entertainment. He is worth hearing on co-development and co-ownership: how audience-proven ideas become durable intellectual property without reducing creators to promotional talent.

Internet Greenlights

Wesley Wang (United States), director and founder of Wesley Wang Media, is testing a creator-led studio model shaped by internet audiences. His YouTube breakthrough, nothing, except everything, opened a route into studio development. His experience offers a useful, still-evolving case study in how filmmakers can demonstrate demand, build negotiating leverage and challenge conventional assumptions about who gets discovered.

Audience Partnership

Jon Leland (United States), co-founder and CEO of Popular Demand, is building an artist-first studio around fan participation and creator control. The former Kickstarter chief strategy officer brings crowdfunding, community organising and ticket presales  into project development. His approach merits attention because it asks audiences to help shape a project’s viability before conventional financing and distribution decisions are settled.

Fan Capital

Paul Scanlan (United States), co-founder and CEO of Legion M, puts fans inside the entertainment company’s ownership and development model. His background includes co-founding mobile-television pioneer MobiTV. He is worth listening to on whether community participation can strengthen financing, discovery and distribution together, while recognising that enthusiasm and shared ownership do not remove the commercial risks of filmmaking.

Audiences & Distribution

Library Revival

Amrita Punjabi (Australia), network director at VA Media, works where film libraries meet YouTube distribution and advertising-supported viewing. Her expertise spans channel operations, analytics, audience development and monetisation. For rights holders, particularly those with underused catalogues, she offers practical thinking on treating YouTube as a destination for premium, long-form content rather than merely a place to upload trailers.

Genre Economics

Yolanda Macias (United States), chief motion pictures officer at Cineverse, brings acquisition and distribution experience to audience-driven genre filmmaking. Her public discussions of Terrifier explain the importance of committed fans, filmmaker conviction and targeted distribution. She offers an instructive perspective on building a release around an identifiable community instead of assuming that visibility requires a conventional blockbuster marketing machine.

Animation Access

Dave Jesteadt (United States), president of GKIDS, has helped build American audiences for international and independent animation. Hiswork spans distribution, English-language production and films including Wolfwalkers and The Breadwinner. For animation producers seeking global reach, he offers insight into the patient work of positioning distinctive films, cultivating audiences and connecting artistic identity with a sustainable theatrical presence.

Fandom Commerce

Mitchel Berger (United States), executive vice president of global commerce at Crunchyroll, oversees businesses spanning theatrical releases, manga, consumer products, collectibles and content sales. His distribution experience includes major anime releases . He matters to anyone building screen IP beyond a single release, showing why audience commitment, theatrical participation and adjacent products deserve to be considered together.

Event Audiences

Kymberli Frueh (United States), executive vice president of content acquisitions and programming at Trafalgar Releasing, specialises in bringing performances and cultural events to cinemas. Her work includes BTS and the Grateful Dead’s recurring theatrical events . Her perspective helps exhibitors and rights owners explore how shared experiences can attract communities whose cinema habits extend beyond conventional feature-film releases.

Markets & Talent

Asian Intelligence

Rance Pow (United States), founder and CEO of Artisan Gateway, brings extensive Asian and North American cinema-market experience. His company advises studios, exhibitors and investors on business development, investment and market intelligence. He is valuable for producers pursuing cross-border partnerships who need to test ambitions against local audience behaviour, distribution conditions and the practical economics of market entry.

Market Connections

Guillaume Esmiol (France), executive director of the Marché du Film, works at the intersection of international dealmaking and industry innovation. His background includes innovation leadership at TF1 and expanding market programmes for financing and co-production. Listen for how film markets can deliver more useful connections between producers, capital and technology, rather than relying on attendance alone as evidence of value.

Expanding IP

Tanja Meissner(Germany), director of Berlinale Pro and the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival, combines international sales experience with producer development. Her public thinking embraces animation, cross-media IP and practical business-model innovation. She matters to producers seeking growth beyond isolated projects, while preserving the distinct creative logic of cinema, games and other formats.

Independent Infrastructure

Jackie Brenneman (United States), president and CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance and American Film Market, connects independent filmmaking with exhibition, policy and international business. Her experience includes National Cinema Day and the Attend Theatrical Marketplace. She offers a valuable perspective on the shared infrastructure, commercial access and industry cooperation needed for independent stories to reach paying audiences.

Talent Connections

Rich Botto (United States), founder and CEO of Stage 32, has built an international platform connecting screen professionals with education, development resources and industry opportunities. The author of Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers also speaks on networking and production . His relevance lies in the human side of growth: helping talent build skills, relationships and routes into an increasingly international screen economy.