Nikola Todorovic didn't grow up dreaming of Hollywood. He grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where storytelling was a way to survive. He remembers the frustration of needing to move to LA to make a film, and wonders if AI can finally break that monopoly.

‘We can cut production costs by 95%’, Todorovic says, pointing out the absurdity of Hollywood’s economics. A hospital costs $20 million, yet a film can cost ten times that and still flop. He believes AI tools can reset the industry and give new filmmakers a voice.

But Todorovic warns that with so much content, studios will still dominate marketing. He draws parallels to the Spotify model, where anyone can make an album but few hear it without a marketing budget. VFX artists, he says, will be hit the hardest, like they always are.

Anger towards AI is understandable, he says, but it won’t change the outcome. The film industry, he notes, has always been downstream of a technological upheaval—starting with the invention of the camera itself. Sound was fought as the death of 'real' film.

For Todorovic, the key is balance. He hopes AI can democratise filmmaking, but warns that it will require navigating the new power structures the technology creates.