Join Us
An evening event about AI and film on April 7, 2026.
AI discourse often divides between critics who reject the technology and advocates who emphasize its advances, particularly in film and media, where concerns about labor, authorship, ownership, and aesthetics meet promises of democratized cultural production and a new golden age of filmmaking.
Bringing together filmmakers, artists, and researchers, this session opens space for a critical exchange on the tools, tensions, and creative possibilities shaping the future of film.
The event includes a panel discussion moderated by Evelyn Kreutzer and Kevin B. Lee, followed by a Q&A session, and networking.
Future of Cinema: From Locarno to San Francisco is a continuation of the two-day conference about the Future of Cinema at UCLA last Fall.
More details to follow.
Program
- 6:00pm – Doors open
- 6:30pm – Event starts
- 7:15pm – Q&A
- 7:30pm – Network reception
- 8:30pm – Doors close
iCal / Outlook
Event start time
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San Francisco
6:00PM
Bios
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Bio
Evelyn Kreutzer
Postdoctoral ResearcherEvelyn Kreutzer is a postdoctoral researcher and video essayist/filmmaker at the Università della Svizzera italiana. She is a co-leader of the SNSF-funded research group “The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies” in Lugano and Lucerne, Switzerland, in which she focuses on AI and its impact on audiovisual memory culture. Her written and videographic work has been published in journals like NECSUS, MSMI, [in]Transition, and The Cine-Files. Her monograph Televising Taste is forthcoming with Lever Press.
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Bio
Kevin B. Lee
Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of CinemaKevin B. Lee is a filmmaker and media researcher who has produced nearly 400 video essays exploring film and media. His award-winning Transformers: The Premake introduced the “desktop documentary” format. His work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Berlinale, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as websites such as The New York Times and Mubi. He is the Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). He co-leads the Swiss National Science Foundation research project “The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies.” His new feature film “Afterlives” screened at BFI London Film Festival and DocLisboa International Film Festival.
Partners
This event is part of the AI + Film Academy, a joint program with the Locarno Film Festival, taking place at Swissnex in San Francisco from April 6–10, 2026.
