EO Producer Eileen Tasca at Venice Forum: Technology Does Not Compensate for Institutions

An arthouse film that grossed over $1 million in the US returned about $30,000 to its producers. In Venice, Tasca called for a sustainable system.

VENICE, VENICE, ITALY, September 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- At the Venice Production Bridge public forum "Democratizing Cinema: Technology, Creators and Expanding Storytelling Horizons", held during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, EO producer Eileen Tasca challenged the popular narrative that technology is making cinema more equal: "Technology does not compensate for institutions, for rights, for laws. If things aren't codified in laws, then it becomes personal — what kind of clout do you have, what kind of family do you come from, is your family in the business."

The forum was presented by the ANFFF Creator Incubator, the non-profit programme of International Nature Bond CIC, moderated by MIMAOKU CEO and ANFFF founder Kean Cao, in collaboration with MIMAOKU and WeShort. Tasca shared the stage with Shixin Tao and Yuqi Zhang, co-directors of the Venice Immersive competition title The Pigeon Ring, and Kiddy Lee, chief director of the AI-animated short A Cat Named T-Rex.

Tasca used her own film to illustrate the economics of arthouse cinema. EO, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for the 2023 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. It grossed more than $1 million in the United States — "which for a very small film is a big deal" — yet its producers collectively received around $30,000. "This is not okay. The distribution system was set up so that we had very little control. We took all the risks. That's got to change." European filmmakers, she noted, have traditionally relied on television to finance part of their budgets, and "the streamers don't pay the same"; consolidation and the buying-up of libraries have further reduced the number of films made.

The industry's real problem, in her view, is not tools but the vacuum after the festival: "We do very well at festivals, but then we don't have a sustainable system that will carry the film forward afterwards." She criticised a growing aversion to risk — "hiding behind the skirts of technology, as if technology is going to solve all our problems" — and turned the argument around: "Technology actually reduces the mistakes, because you get more information. So it should make it easier to take a little bit more risk, perhaps, on the part of our dear distributors." For an auteur film, she added, "you don't need a big audience, but you need to find your right audience."

Asked by young creators about financing and co-production, Tasca advised against making "sending your résumé to a producer" a career path: "Create your own career path. The real opportunity is in birthing new small groups of filmmakers that have a common vision — and that's where AI could be really helpful." Co-production, she cautioned, "should not only be financially driven"; Europe's Eurimages, national and regional funds may not be enough to make life comfortable, "but it's a lot better than nothing."

On the creative side, Tasca described how EO's crew "used technology to lose control", deploying sophisticated equipment so that the donkey could express itself and its reactions could be captured. Asked whether EO could be made with generated imagery, her answer was brief: "A digital image of EO does not have agency. Our donkeys had agency. We watched them react. That's the difference." She urged the industry not to undervalue its craftspeople: "AI can help, but we can't just throw all our artists and craftspeople out. They've got something that is really special."

The younger speakers bore out her analysis. The Pigeon Ring team, who used some 300 cameras and 4D Gaussian Splatting to reconstruct a real family home as a walk-through immersive work, said that for new creators the hardest part was not the technology but finding a technical team and funding, and convincing a backer to believe in "something that did not exist yet". Lee, who locks script and structure before using AI "just to save some VFX budget", summed up the creators' consensus: "You shouldn't be led by AI. You should lead AI."

Closing the forum, Tasca defined democratization as "everybody having the right to be heard — isn't that the basis of democracy?" Cao concluded that democratization "depends on who controls the funding, who has access to expertise and infrastructure, who remains protected, and which audiences are able to encounter the work."

The forum also announced that submissions for ANFFF 2027 are open on FilmFreeway, and that recruitment has begun for the festival's first-round international jury.

About ANFFF: The Animal · Nature · Future Film Festival is the flagship non-profit film and cultural programme of International Nature Bond CIC, a UK Community Interest Company, exploring the relationship between animals, nature and the future through film, art and international cultural exchange.

About MIMAOKU: MIMAOKU Culture & Media Ltd is a China–UK cultural and media company with offices in Shanghai and the United Kingdom, working across international co-production, festival PR and cultural events.

Kean Cao
MIMAOKU CULTURE & MEDIA LTD
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