CinemaCon’s closed-door presentations are where studios pitch exhibitors on the coming year: unreleased footage, talent on stage, executives making the case for the big screen. This year, a different part of the industry had a seat at the table.
Coca-Cola Refreshing Films program brought its students into that environment. Honnie Korngold of CineVantage attending as a technical partner alongside the finalist filmmakers whose spots were revealed during the week. For those students, the week was less about production and more about proximity to the studios, the exhibitors and the people making distribution decisions.
The convention draws that kind of room. Tom Cruise, Zendaya and Dwayne Johnson were among the actors who appeared; Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve were among the filmmakers. Studio executives presented unreleased footage and introduced the teams behind their upcoming releases.
The Refreshing Films finalists moved through all of it. They met with studio executives, spent time with director Hikari, a program alum, and tracked how student-produced work connects to actual theatrical audiences. One of their spots will run in theaters nationwide.
CineVantage’s contribution to the program focuses on sound design and music composition, the elements that determine how a film lands in a theater. That work helped bring the projects in line with the standards of theatrical exhibition.
The filmmakers left Las Vegas with industry access and a theatrical release. For emerging creators, that combination is hard to find anywhere else.
