{"id":4987,"date":"2026-08-06T06:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2026-08-06T06:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:05:18","slug":"locarno-honoree-sigurjon-sighvatsson-on-ai-netflix-and-why-cannes-doesnt-know-what-it-is-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=4987","title":{"rendered":"Locarno Honoree Sigurj\u00f3n Sighvatsson on AI, Netflix and Why Cannes \u201cDoesn\u2019t Know What It Is Anymore\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tIceland-born, U.S.-based producer Sigurj\u00f3n \u201cJoni\u201d Sighvatsson has the kind of r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that speaks for itself: David Lynch\u2018s Cannes Palme d\u2019Or winner <em>Wild at Heart<\/em>, Julian Schnabel\u2019s\u00a0<em>Basquiat<\/em>, Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s <em>The Weight of Water<\/em>, plus music videos and series including <em><em>Twin Peaks<\/em><\/em> and <em>Beverly Hills, 90210<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=4985\">Paramount, Warners Bros. Staffers In Limbo and Denial as Merger Deal Drags On<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis week, the Palomar Pictures principal \u2014 who co-founded Propaganda Films in 1986 \u2014 returns to the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival to receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award in the Piazza Grande on Thursday evening. The honor is named for the man who served as Locarno\u2019s president from 1981 to 1999.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAhead of his trip to Switzerland, Sighvatsson spoke with <em>THR<\/em> about his excitement over returning to Locarno, his read on the festival circuit at large, and why he believes his work doesn\u2019t belong in the \u201cclosed system\u201d he says Netflix has built.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSighvatsson has visited Locarno before and remains a fan, largely thanks to its more adventurous, less predictable curation. \u201cThe festival is not just focused on what is in the competition,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything has changed. When <em>Wild at Heart<\/em> won in Cannes [in 1990], that was a big platform for that kind of unusual film to get. Now, we don\u2019t know really what Cannes is anymore. What are they catering to? What is their vision? It is a very different festival from Locarno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tUnlike the bigger festivals, he adds, Locarno \u201cnever had this incredible focus on just getting stars, or just a competition, or just this.\u201d That flexibility, he argues, will serve it well: \u201cI love Locarno. I think some of the other festivals have become prisoners of their own success, and with the business changing, they have changed. I think festivals like Locarno, which are smaller and have a slightly lower profile and different approaches to film, will do better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>AI\u2019s Impact On the Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWith AI a hot topic of debate in Hollywood and beyond, what is the producer\u2019s reading on the technology\u2019s likely impact on the film industry? \u201cI think AI actually will help in many ways, but I don\u2019t really see AI movies changing things because in the end, movies are about people and they\u2019re about stories,\u201d Sighvatsson tells <em>THR<\/em>. \u201cI see it working for some projects. For the new <em>The Odyssey<\/em>, Christopher Nolan was not using AI for a reason \u2014 because he doesn\u2019t want to make people feel it\u2019s AI. I heard the new [live-action] <em>Moana<\/em>, the Disney film, feels just like an AI film, even though it\u2019s using real characters [and CGI].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHis bottom line: \u201cI think it\u2019s a double-edged sword, but AI will help. It\u2019s like any very powerful tool, for example, the atom bomb. It\u2019s all about how you use it, or if you use it at all. And I think a lot of filmmakers will opt not to use AI because they don\u2019t need to. But others will use it. Will it change the course of cinema? No. I think it will change television more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=4983\">A$AP Rocky Gives Update on Rihanna\u2019s Next Album: \u201cShe Cooking\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>On Netflix and the \u201cClosed System\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tSighvatsson isn\u2019t optimistic about television\u2019s current state, largely because of streaming \u2014 and he draws a sharp line between films and what Netflix produces. \u201cThere are things that Netflix calls films. I don\u2019t call them films,\u201d he says. \u201cI call them Netflix films. That\u2019s very different than a film.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHe elaborates: \u201cMost of the things that Netflix does don\u2019t have a very deep meaning, and they are not supposed to. You still need a lot of skill to make those big Netflix films, but they don\u2019t really expect them to have a long life, and they are shown only within a closed system. It\u2019s the Netflix system, so Netflix is just making something for a closed system, whereas everything that I\u2019ve made, even music videos, is for an open system that anybody can access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe distinction, he says, comes down to distribution: \u201cThe difference is that Netflix doesn\u2019t even sell any of its product to anybody else but Netflix. So they\u2019ve created the language that fits this box that is called the Netflix box, and they\u2019re very successful, including with some of the animation and some of the children\u2019s content. And even though Netflix is changing, it doesn\u2019t change the fact that a Netflix film fits only in a Netflix box. It wouldn\u2019t fit in an Imax theater, for example. \u2026 And when you\u2019re producing for such masses, you automatically demand less complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tGiven all that, don\u2019t expect a Sighvatsson-produced Netflix title anytime soon. \u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s my thing. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m in the Netflix universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tStill, he gives the streamer credit where it\u2019s due. \u201cI think it\u2019s great that other people [create content for] it. That\u2019s fantastic, and Netflix has changed the business,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I think Netflix has done well is give people in other countries an opportunity to make material in different languages, in different cultures. That, I think, is the greatest contribution Netflix has made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=4981\">Regal Cinemas CEO Is Now Team Ellison, Too<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#039;Twin Peaks&#039; producer Sigurjon Sighvatsson says Netflix films are made for a closed system, Cannes and Venice focus on mega cinema.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1288,2,904,905,65,1289],"class_list":["post-4987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-beverly-hills-90210","tag-international","tag-locarno-2026","tag-locarno-film-festival","tag-netflix","tag-twin-peaks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Locarno Honoree Sigurj\u00f3n Sighvatsson on AI, Netflix and Why Cannes \u201cDoesn\u2019t Know What It Is Anymore\u201d - 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