Hello there, and welcome to the Common Thread Newsletter by FBRC.AI.

This newsletter will keep you updated on the latest advances in AI-driven creativity. We are a team of industry veterans, entrepreneurs, creatives, and technologists building Hollywood X!

CES January 4-7th 2026

We’ll be in Vegas Jan 4-7th at the Aria for all things emerging tech, media, and entertainment. If you’d like to meet up, please reply to this note or text Todd.

The FBRC Network

Throughout the year, we host both public and private gatherings designed to help our network create real value—whether that’s landing new clients, unlocking investment, forming partnerships, or finding meaningful work.

We’ve been incredibly fortunate to collaborate with so many talented people this year, and it’s been rewarding to see members of the FBRC Network go on to full-time roles at legacy studios, emerging AI Studios, AI startups, and leading agencies.

Our community is also growing internationally, and as that happens, we want to make sure we’re staying in sync with what’s happening in your world—especially where we can be most helpful.

In 2026, we’ll be expanding our programming with more events and activations across Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London, and Singapore, and you’ll see us show up at more global cultural events.

🚨 Help us help you! 🚨

Please take a moment to fill out the form that best reflects where you’re at right now. These short surveys help us better connect people, surface opportunities, and build programming that actually serves the network.

• Startups

• Investors

• Creators

• AI Studios

We’re excited about what’s ahead and even more excited about what we can build together.

2025 in Review

The year didn’t start easily. The first quarter was marked by devastating fires across Los Angeles—bringing disruption and real loss to friends in our community. Our focus during that time was simple: keep people connected, supported, and moving forward together.

In Q1, we released the industry’s first comprehensive AI Studio Report, which continues to be cited in analyst research, investor decks, and industry presentations as a reference point for understanding the “AI Studio” through 9 interviews and a survey of 98 studios.

From there, momentum accelerated. We partnered with and advised leading studios, startups, and platforms; hosted ongoing educational events and competitions focused on AI creativity; Todd joined the inaugural Adobe GenAI Leaders Community; Rachel became an adjunct professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, teaching about The Future of AI Media; we partnered with ComfyUI to host their official LA meetups; partnered with ETC on two AI short films (Pathways and The Bends); collaborated with NAB to launch their Startup Showcase, PropelME and produced the second annual NAB PromptBattle + an AI Filmmaking Party at the BattleBots® Arena with Curious Refuge; grew the AI on the Lot brand globally; launched Hollywood X at Fox Studios; expanded our work into APAC; welcomed new enterprise clients; we doubled our newsletter audience year over year; we earned meaningful press coverage across industry and mainstream media, and we are still bootstrapped!

For the startup ecosystem, 2025 marked a year of meaningful capital flowing into AI startups and AI studios. At the same time, it became clear that many early “products” still function more like services in an increasingly competitive market. The next phase will separate teams with durable go-to-market strategies from those that consolidate through acquisitions, restructurings, or more disciplined funding rounds.

2026 feels like the inflection point.
Here are three observations that have emerged across the FBRC Network:

Talent arbitrage is real — and measurable

What Scott Belsky describes as “talent arbitrage” in 12 Outlooks for the Future: 2026+ is visible in our own community data. Participants who regularly attend FBRC events, hackathons, and salons landed new roles throughout 2025—across legacy media companies, AI studios, startups, and agencies.

Our programs go beyond teaching or showcasing new tools and methods. They introduce more effective ways of working and create sustained opportunities for peer connection. Over time, that advantage compounds. As we head into 2026, AI-native skills are moving from edge to center—creating a rare moment for emerging and previously overlooked talent to step into new roles and leadership positions before these capabilities become standard.

Craft beats speed in Hollywood

The loudest fears around AI in Hollywood are increasingly giving way to a more grounded reality: audiences still crave craft, meaning, and shared experiences. As AI makes content faster and cheaper to produce, the industry is beginning to distinguish between disposable output and work that preserves authorship, control, and precision. You’ll start to see more so-called “anti-AI” positions emerge—not as a rejection of technology, but as a business and creative response to abundance.

This thinking aligns with Ari Emanuel’s widely discussed “anti-AI thesis,” which is less about opposing AI and more about understanding where enduring value will live in an AI-saturated world. As digital content becomes commoditized, the scarcity—and therefore value—of authentic, human, and live experiences increases. AI-driven productivity may free up more leisure time, but people will choose to spend that time on experiences that feel real, communal, and irreplicable.

This is the foundation of Hollywood X—a movement we launched to honor Hollywood’s legacy while thoughtfully embracing innovation. We don’t pretend to have all the answers. Instead, we’re creating space for technologists and storytellers to work through these questions together, advancing new tools while protecting the values that made this industry matter in the first place.

Process becomes part of the product

As AI-generated ‘synthetic’ content floods our social media feeds, skepticism becomes the default. “That’s fake” is now a reflex and it might get its 15 minutes of fame, but ‘it just dissipates into the ether of other internet junk’ as Leonardo DiCaprio said during a recent RollingStone interview.

The brilliance behind art is in the proof of craft—visibility into the ingenuity, constraints, and human decision-making behind the work.

This belief has guided our filmmaking competition Cinema Synthetica since its inception in May 2024. Behind-the-scenes storytelling, showing your work, and transparent chains of custody—where metadata and process matter—are becoming entertainment in their own right. The bar for craft is rising, and process is no longer hidden; it is the story.

As we step into 2026, we are spending more time with loved ones, working on passion projects, and leaning into what we have always excelled at: IRL community.

ComfyUI LA Meetup

During this holiday season, I hope you’ve been working on your ComfyUI skills. We’ll be kicking off our official monthly meetup on January 20th. Signup here if you’d like to present, and RSVP to attend below…