(photo by Michael Dequina)
The afternoon saw the beginning of the general convention program with the first in this year's seminar series, called "Refreshing the Future of Cinema," sponsored by CinemaCon's longtime presenting sponsor, Coca-Cola. One could be cynical and describe this session as being not only a commercial, but a commercial for a commercial, for the back half of the hour centered on the finalists of the annual Refreshing Films competition, where student filmmakers compete to have their original Coca-Cola-themed short films play in theatres nationwide. To add to this twisted knot of commercialism, this particular session also had an additional outside sponsor/partner: Before the Movie and Mobile Moviegoing, which provides both pre-show programming and website solutions for cinemas. Founder and CEO of the company, Corey Tocchini, introduced both a video detailing the company's services and those on his team who were in attendance for the convention.
(photo by Michael Dequina)
The host for the afternoon's program was Eric Blumenthal, the Coca-Cola Company's vice president of consumer value, and his position served him right for the first half of the program, where he and the company's vice president of strategic insights, Emily Rogers, related a number of well researched statistics about movie consumers -- namely those of Gen Z. The deep dive into their moviegoing and general movie-related habits then led to some ideas on how exhibitors can adapt and build on their practice to further grow the young demographic's attendance.
Interspersed throughout that first half were showings of the four finalists films in this year's Refreshing Films competition, but before the teams behind them got their moment on stage, one of the long-running program's successful alumni received a spotlight: Tracy Oliver, best known for writing the hit 2017 big screen comedy Girls Trip and creating the also-successful Amazon Prime Video series Harlem. She discussed her career and experience participating in the contest, highlighting how it gives young filmmakers valuable experience on set with a budget and a professional crew. The four filmmaker duos of this year's finalist shorts -- director/co-writer Aiko Lozar and producer/co-writer Lexi Berganio of Chapman University (Ticket to Everywhere), producer K.L. Sanon and director/writer Grace Tompkins of the University of Central Florida (Screening Love), producer Minnie Wangkietkajon and director Madelyn Domnick of Savannah College of Art & Design (Jump!), director/writer Amirah Adem and producer Biola Olateru-Olagbegi of USC (A Cinema's Groove) -- joined Oliver to tell their stories and experiences and receive some valuable career advice from Oliver. The winners of this year's competition will be announced at the Big Screen Achievement Awards ceremony on Thursday night.
(photo by Michael Dequina)
Stay tuned here and on my Instagram, TikTok, Spill (user name: @twotrey23 ), and Twitter all week for ongoing coverage of all the goings-on at CinemaCon 2025!
(Very special thanks to Heather Lewandoski and the CinemaCon PR team for all their helpful and generous assistance at the convention, as well as Mitch Neuhauser and the CinemaCon crew and Harry Medved and the Cinema United team)
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