Will An AI Film Win An Academy Award By 2029?
A landmark event awaits you in Los Angeles on December 17, 2025 as three creative titans, who worked on beloved films ranging from The Incredibles to Cars to Wall-E, The Perfect Match and All Eyez on Me, and whose characters appeared in Into the Spiderverse and beyond, gather to speak about the future of filmmaking with AI and Generative Video tools, and in particular, whether an AI film could win an Academy Award by 2029.
Presented by Genvid, KlingAI, and The Business of Creating Institute, you'll have a front row seat to hearing about what lifelong animators, film makers, and creators think about these tools, their challenges and opportunities.
This select group of leaders, including an Emmy award winner, will share firsthand perspectives from the front lines—what’s working, what’s breaking, and what comes next.
Attendance is reserved only for those directly involved in creative or technical work with generative media.
The event will begin promptly at 6pm with a screening of a new short film, The Seeker, at 6:30pm. The panel will begin promptly at 7pm until 8pm, and the event will conclude at 9pm.
Speakers
Panelist: Stephan Bugaj, Chief Creative Officer, Genvid
Stephan Bugaj is the Chief Creative Officer at Genvid, where he created and helmed SILENT HILL: Ascension for which he won an Emmy Award, and the currently running DC Heroes United. Past roles include CCO of DJ2 Entertainment (Sonic Films, Tomb Raider anime); VP of Creative at Hanson Robotics (Sophia android); and Studio Creative Director at Telltale Games (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead). Earlier in his career, Stephan spent a dozen years at Pixar on both creative and technical teams, with credits including The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Brave, and Wall-E.
Panelist: Jeff Clanagan, President & Chief Distribution Officer, Hartbeat
Jeff Clanagan is an award-winning producer and innovator in entertainment. He currently serves as President & Chief Distribution Officer of Hartbeat, Kevin Hart’s global, multi-platform media company creating entertainment where comedy meets culture.
Clanagan leads the Hartbeat Media division, which connects with consumers around the world through events, gaming, music publishing, and an expansive distribution network. He oversees the strategic vision and expansion of Hartbeat Media, and leads the company’s flagship consumer brand – the LOL! Network – which reaches audiences across its O&O social media, audio (SiriusXM) and OTT partners (Peacock, Roku, Tubi, PlutoTV, Vizio, Redbox, Xumo, and more). Projects that he recently or is currently producing include The Roast of Tom Brady, Headliners Only, Die Hart, Hart to Heart, Olympic Highlights, So Dumb It’s Criminal, Kevin Hart: Zero F*cks Given, and more. He also has been behind highly successful experiential projects as a producer of Nick Cannon’s Wild N Out Tour, and Kevin Hart: Reality Check.
Hartbeat was formed in 2022 from the merger of Hart’s two entertainment entities - Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Productions. Prior to his role with Hartbeat, Clanagan was CEO of Laugh Out Loud, a global comedy brand and multi-platform company, where he oversaw the company’s development, production, distribution and experiential efforts. He was also previously CEO of Codeblack Films and Codeblack Digital, a film production and distribution company dedicated to super-serving the black community worldwide. In his role with Codeblack Films, he and his team acquired and developed films for distribution such as the Golden Globe® nominated indie drama Frankie and Alice and Addicted, based on the popular urban novel by Zane, which grossed over $16 million at the box office.
Throughout his career, Clanagan has broken new ground in theatrical marketing with his digital-first approach to the successful release of films like The Perfect Match and the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, which generated $27 million in its first week. By piloting new digital-first tracking and research initiatives with a first-of-its-kind partnership with Screen Engine, he’s leveraging the millions of followers he built through Codeblack Digital, a division of Codeblack Films, to facilitate scalable research on influential African American audiences.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-clanagan/
Panelist: Sharad Devarajan, Founder & CEO of Graphic India
Graphic India is the leading original superhero and animation company in South Asia, and the Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Toonsutra, India’s #1 webtoon platform.
A creator and showrunner, Sharad has created, written and produced over 200 animated TV episodes and over 300 comics, webtoons and graphic novels.
A superhero creator and entrepreneur, Sharad’s lifelong dream is to create superheroes that unlock the unique creativity of India but appeal to audiences worldwide - transforming the perception of India from being an ‘outsourcer” to being ‘the source.’
He is the creator and showrunner of “The Legend of Hanuman” which was the first original animated series for Disney+Hotstar in India becoming the biggest animated series in the history of the country, now on its 6th season; He is also the Co-Creator of Pavitr Prabhakar, the Indian Spider-Man who recently appeared in the hit animated film, “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”.
Sharad is also the Co-Founder of Liquid Comics where he has collaborated and published original graphic novels with acclaimed creators including, Guy Ritchie, Barry Sonnenfeld, Wes Craven, Shekhar Kapur, John Woo, Stan Lee, Grant Morrison and more.
He is a longtime Professor at Columbia Business School, where he has taught for two decades on media, artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies.
Moderator: Tony Pu, Product Marketing & Operations, Kling AI
Tony Pu has a diverse background spanning creative and tech industries. Currently, Tony spearheads the go-to-market efforts at Kling AI, a leading AI video generation platform, for its adoption in the global market across users at all levels. Previously, he has played a key role in the success of CapCut achieving millions of user growth. Before that, he has been actively involved in film project development, film festival curation, creative production, and advertising. With first-hand experience as a creative producer and a deep understanding of platform dynamics, he brings a unique perspective on storytelling and innovation.