Jordan Firstman is reflecting on the whirlwind bidding war for his directorial debut and Cannes breakout, Club Kid.

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At an In Conversation event at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Tuesday — where Club Kid is screening — Firstman’s co-star (and former celebrity crush, as the filmmaker would later reveal) Diego Calva made a surprise appearance. The pair spoke candidly about the entire process, from inception to a wild Croisette premiere that had every distributor gunning for the film.

“It was surreal, the whole day — it happened so fast,” said the U.S. star when asked about the premiere in May. “Diego can attest that the room was very much alive, and it was the best experience I’ve had on the film so far, watching that first screening. Because you don’t know if the jokes are gonna hit, especially [with] a French audience,” he joked, “No shade! But every joke was hitting, people were sniffling. I thought I was gonna be so in my head, but I felt so present.”

Firstman, who also stars in Rachel Sennott’s I Love LA on HBO, said it was a healing experience seeing the movie perform well. “I had felt something about myself for so long, and seeing it validated just meant a lot. And then the beauty of that moment became about money so quickly, and it kind of was a mind fuck for me,” he added, saying it made him feel “a little sad.” He continued: “Of course, it was exciting. I was excited about the success, but I was hoping I would get to live in the art a little bit more.”

The following day, Firstman had to take a lot of meetings. “They were very emotional meetings too, and the distributors were all crying, but I couldn’t tell, ‘Are they crying because they want me to say yes to them? Or are these real tears?’” he said, prompting laughter from the audience. “You are basically forced to choose the fate of your life in a day. Like, who is going to be the best home for it? And I had always felt like A24 was the right place for it, even when I was shooting it. In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘This just feels like an A24 movie.’ And they’re so amazing with their directors.”

Firstman and Calva sat as San Sebastian screened the trailer for the film. The movie is a surprisingly tender coming-of-age story, following a washed-up New York party promoter whose life is thrown off balance when he unexpectedly finds himself responsible for a son he never knew about.

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The writer, director, star and executive producer on the film explained that much of his character, Peter, is based on his own personal life experience — feeling like something of a “lost soul” — and that many of the scenes were not created but “captured” by shooting at real New York parties, with members of the queer community injecting the project with sparkling authenticity.

On whether he struggled to find financiers for a queer story, Firstman replied: “There’s no story I’ve tried to tell so far that wasn’t queer. I had 10 years of rejection before this, so yeah — it’s hard to make straight people with money think people are gonna care. […] It’s like, they are running a business. I think Europe is way better because you have more funds and more ways of getting financing. But in America, it’s a business. A gay thing will do really well, and you’ll see a wave of gay things, and then a gay thing will do bad, and then you’ll see a wave of not gay things. So it’s very cyclical, but I knew I wanted this to be seen by a lot of people, and I knew I wanted to get this made.”

Firstman said he felt passionate that he make a project about a person living a queer life, “but I don’t particularly think about this as a gay movie. Like to me, this is a father-son movie, and it’s a coming-of-age story about a queer person, and it doesn’t shy away from anything. It’s a very honest portrayal,” he added. “But I think finding the universality in the struggles of queer life and how everyone can find themselves in this character [was important].”

As Calva made his entrance and was asked about joining the film, Firstman actually revealed that he was reluctant to cast Calva as his love interest, Oscar, because the Mexican actor used to be his celebrity crush. “That’s new!” said Calva as the room giggled. “He never told me that.”

“I don’t know if I told you this,” continued Firstman, “but I begged Rachel Sennott make you my love interest in I Love LA because I’m like, ‘If I’m not directing it, it doesn’t seem as weird.’ So then, when his name was brought up to me, I was like, ‘Is that weird?’ And the crush went away. Don’t worry. I still have a friend crush… Nothing weird happened.”

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The 2026 San Sebastian International Film Festival runs Sept. 18-26.