Picture This 2025: Beyond the (Generative) Hype!
If the buzzword for the industry in 2024 was "generative," then after another year of AI, the industry has been sobering up. While Europe is producing more than 2,400 feature-length films per year and attempting to score a global blockbuster in the increasingly audience-centric and platform-driven world, virtual production is maturing into established workflows with a handful of expert players.
The race of generative AI models is cooling off, with focus shifting from the larger models towards the smaller, more specific. Alongside the ever-chilly transatlantic relations in tech and content, this brings a sobering tone to an industry in transition. It is becoming clear that the industry is transforming into a new landscape where more boutique and radically different business models, cheaper and more powerful tools, and the omnipresence of AI is becoming a reality.
The 2025 edition of Picture This, organized by the National Film School, is thus looking beyond the hype, taking a pragmatic look into how pioneering creatives, producers, and innovation forerunners are adapting to this new industry environment beyond the headlines and buzzwords. The conference, taking place yet again at the Black Diamond of Copenhagen, this year focuses on practical learnings from directors and storytellers who have pioneered and domesticated the new (AI and VP) modes and models. Providing insights into what it takes to launch, manage, and operate a profitable and creatively flourishing AI-native film studio, unveiling the new rules of conception, production, and distribution for small-scale and European producers, and exploring how creatives can safely and securely monetize their assets and training data in the generative AI world.
As a new format, the 2025 edition will increasingly focus on the transforming roles of directors, writers, and DOPs through their personal journeys and case studies, assemble a new Nordic Showcase of Scandinavian Screen Innovators, and conclude with its classic deep dive into the most interesting case studies.
The 2025 edition is curated and moderated by Sten Saluveer, Head of Cannes Next & CEO at Storytek, with the collaboration of the Picture This Steering Committee.
The full lineup of Picture This 2025 will be unveiled in August 2025. For more information go to the Picture This website: https://www.picturethisconference.com/
Program
09:00-09:30 Doors open
Morning Coffee
09:30-09:40 Welcome
Day program
09:40-10:10 Beyond the Hype: Challenging the Frontiers of Imagination, Illusion, and Cinematic Storytelling with Artificial Intelligence
Speaker: Paul Trillo
What happens when we stop trying to replicate "cinematic reality" and start using AI to build a new one?
Paul Trillo is a pioneering film director and creative who has consistently pushed the limits of in-camera effects and emerging technology. In the opening keynote of Picture This, Paul, lauded for his pioneering work with Artificial Intelligence, including Sora, explores how the industry's focus on mimicking reality with AI has missed the point. In his keynote and the following Q&A session, Paul will dissect the current climate of hype around generative AI and share his journey as an artist who has deliberately "misused" tools to discover their true creative potential. The session from one of the world's pioneering AI filmmakers will offer a unique view beyond the marketing claims and aim to provide a pragmatic examination of how new platforms and models like Moonvalley's Marey can be integrated into a creative workflow not just as a tool for efficiency, but as a catalyst for a new visual language. Inherently, Paul will explore what happens when we stop trying to replicate reality and start using these tools to build new ones.
10:10-10:40 Q&A with Paul Trillo
10:45-11:15 Coffee and tea break
11:15-12:00 Contributor, Peer, or Challenger? AI in the Writers' Room
Speaker: Katri Manninen
In this fast-paced and fun session Katri Manninen reveals how seasoned writers can use ChatGPT and other GenAI tools to tell better stories.
Katri Manninen, a prolific Finnish screenwriter and doctoral candidate, addresses the evolving role of the writer in an AI-augmented world in her session. Drawing on her extensive experience and research at Aalto University, she will offer a no-hype, practical guide to using generative AI as a tool for storytelling for screenwriters. As one of the leading AI-assisted screenwriters, Katri will provide participants with a practical look beyond the theoretical, offering battle-tested strategies for human-AI collaboration, focusing on mastery of prompting and maintaining creative control. The question she explores is not whether AI belongs in the writer's room, but how we define its role as a collaborator, a ghostwriter, or a subordinate.
12:00-13:00 Fireside Masterclass: Exploring Vision, Craft, and Technology in Bringing Magic to the Screen
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 Breaking Barriers: Meet and Learn from Poland's Female Screen Innovators in AI, Virtual Production, and VFX
Speakers: Marta Bródka, Marta Krzeptowska & Joanna Andrecka
Beyond the well-known Polish New Wave, what can we learn from the country's screen innovation frontrunners?
Poland has a deep history in cinema, but also a growing reputation for excellence in screen innovation, AI, virtual production and visual effects. This session will introduce three pioneering Polish female film professionals from post-production, directing, and VFX to dissect two specific case studies. They will explore how AI can augment the quality and scope of independent production from the development stage onward. The discussion will highlight what Danish professionals can learn from Polish examples of working with major domestic and global productions to elevate their own native films and series.
15:00-15:30 Coffee and tea break
15:30-16:50 Picture This Panorama: Case Studies from European and Nordic Films
Speakers: Bobby Boermans, Niels Sejer, Dennis Kleyn, Daniel Espinosa & Mikael Windelin
The Picture This conference will once again conclude with a heavyweight panel, the Picture This Panorama. Moderated by Denmark's VFX supervisor par excellence Mikael Windelin, the 2025 closing session of Picture This brings together an unprecedented group of filmmakers offering a hands-on, behind-the-scenes look into their art and craft.
The 2025 lineup of guests includes director Daniel Espinosa, set designer Niels Sejer, and Dutch director and producer of films & television series Bobby Boermans who will give the audience a never-before-seen look behind their latest screen magic. The participants will discuss 'Reservatet'/' Secrets We Keep' by director Per Fly for Netflix, case presented by Production Designer Niels Sejr. 'Helicopter Heist' also for Netflix presented by director Daniels Espinoza and last by not least 'iHostage', a Netflix movie presented by director Bobby Boermans and VP supervisor Dennis Kleyn. The discussion will showcase how the latest virtual production technologies have become the indispensable toolkit and aid the independent filmmakers to bring their visions to the screen.
17:00-18:30 Post Event Networking & Cocktails
What will you learn?
Insights into the future of film production with a focus on AI, audiences, and creative workflows. Concrete experiences and strategies from those actively driving the transformation.
Who should attend?
Professionals in the audiovisual sector. Directors, scriptwriters, producers, Production designers, Post production professionals, Creative technologists, VFX people, film funds, scholars and students.
For further information, contact
