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Upstarts · 3 min · May 1, 2026

Runway gives amateur filmmakers access to the same tools as top directors

Cristóbal Valenzuela · Co-founder & co-CEO, Runway

Cristóbal Valenzuela argues that access to AI video tools no longer separates amateurs from elite filmmakers; ideas and storytelling do.

In this episode

Full analysis
  1. 20:02Runway kept going when investors said generative AI was not a market5 min
  2. 25:19Build for changing models, not today’s limitations5 min
  3. 6:11Runway’s founders treated early AI as a creative medium7 min
  4. 15:29A single editor showed how Runway could fit into TV production2 min
  5. 38:56Video models could train robots and power real-time characters4 min
  6. 13:00Creative satisfaction can make AI tools worth paying for3 min
  7. 30:13Runway gives amateur filmmakers access to the same tools as top directors3 min
  8. 32:56AI misuse is the creator's responsibility, not the tool's3 min
“because if you think about it, you have access to the same level of technology that someone like Darren has. So you're basically both starting at the same level.”
Cristóbal Valenzuelaat 30:43 · Upstarts
30:43

Takeaways

  1. He says amateurs and top filmmakers can access the same technology.
  2. Runway's film festival drew 6,000 submissions last year.
  3. A musician's winning film led to a deal to make more work.

About this segment

Cristóbal Valenzuela argues that access to AI video tools no longer separates amateurs from elite filmmakers; ideas and storytelling do. Runway's festival drew 6,000 submissions and helped a musician become a filmmaker.

Cristóbal Valenzuela

Cristóbal Valenzuela is co-founder and CEO of Runway.

Co-founded Runway, an applied AI research company whose creative suite has more than 30 AI-powered tools.

  • Alex Konrad, Host · Founder & editor, Upstarts Media

    Ran Forbes' Midas List for ten years and co-created its Cloud 100 list; founded Upstarts in 2025.

From “Runway’s Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn’t”, May 1, 2026. Watch the full episode

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 30:23

    Or is it more about the democratization of the amateur Aronofsky's out there? I think both. I don't think it's a serious game. game. You can have the best filmmakers, the Darren Aronofsky's of the world, be able to do more and find new creative ways of pushing their own craft, and they're in the 1% of the 1%. These are the best of the best. But the thing about this technology is that it's very ubiquitous and it's very easy to access, so anyone can access. And that for me is the most insane thing, because if you think about it, you have access to the same level of technology that someone like Darren has.

  2. 30:58

    So you're basically both starting at the same level. The feel has been equalized. Now, are you able to do something better than him? Well, that's not going to be a technical limitation anymore. That's something else. And that's something else is your ideas, your storytelling, whatever you want to tell. But the fact that you're there first, I think it's a huge upgrade. And so you guys even do these film festivals, right?

  3. 31:18

    And is it fair to say you're trying to promote those new generation folks and at the same time partner and talk to the Darren's of the world to help them be, you know, even more in that top 1%? Correct. So, yeah, we host a film festival every year. We've been doing it for the last four years, both in New York, L.A. This year, actually, we're taking it to Japan. So we're going to do New York, L.A. and Tokyo.

  4. 31:41

    It's becoming an institution now. The last year, we got 6,000 submissions of phones that are AI generated or made with AI from all over the world. and the idea with when we started back then making this film festival was really to celebrate like the people behind the technology and it's pretty obvious that like the people who come and celebrate now are from kind of all spectrums of professional you know experience in storytelling from yeah the diaries of the world he was one of our first panelists and the first film system we had to like like the winner of last year's festival um it was a musician um that we're gonna move for a year um and the movie was amazing if you haven't seen it we have it on our website and it was so good that now he has a deal to make more and so now he became like filmmaker just because of that and we have so many stories like that but people whose lives

  5. 32:34

    have changed just because of that so yeah the festival is a way of celebrating that to your point earlier that we don't care necessarily how it's made as long as it's good it makes us feel good like do you expect that the current debates around use of ai in video or in hollywood will