Digital Hollywood: The AI & Entertainment Summit
Tuesday, July 21st, 2026
2– 2:50 PM Eastern Time Zone
Session II: A Virtual Event
Super Creativity at the University: Film Departments + AI Labs = The Future
For decades film schools taught story and image while computer science labs taught code and data. In 2026 those walls are coming down — and what's emerging on the other side is genuinely exciting. This session brings together university film and television program leaders alongside their AI research counterparts to explore how collaboration between disciplines is reshaping creative education. How is narrative craft being fused with reasoning models? How are joint labs training directors on prompt engineering while training LLMs on cinematic datasets? The cross-disciplinary curriculum is still being written and not every experiment is succeeding — but the graduates emerging from these programs speak both story and code fluently. This session examines what's working, what isn't and why the university may become the most important creative laboratory of the next decade.
Speakers:
Charlie Fink, AIXR Podcast Host, Producer, Adjunct, Author, Moderator
MaryAnn Talavera, Assistant Director, Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Timothy Carvalho, Creative Director, A.I. Researcher & Assistant Professor of Design, University of Texas at Arlington
Ricardo “Ricky” Figueroa, Professor and Director, School of Film and Animation, Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT
Diana Colella is executive vice president of Autodesk’s Entertainment & Media vertical solutions group. In this role, she manages product, strategy and execution for the company’s portfolio servicing the film, TV and games industries. Colella has been with Autodesk for more than 20 years occupying a range of leadership roles, including head of product management and worldwide support. She has extensive experience in strategically transforming business models, creating new product offerings and optimizing processes on a global scale. Most recently, she served as vice president in Autodesk’s Business Strategy and Marketing group, leading the M&E and AutoCAD businesses, which represent more than $1B in annual recurring revenue. In this role, she drove the company’s strategy for digital conversion of non-compliant users and launched One AutoCAD. She is the executive sponsor of the Autodesk Women’s Network.
