{"id":486697,"date":"2026-05-15T22:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486697\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:04:15","slug":"ai-debate-dominates-cannes-buzz-as-filmmakers-grudgingly-accept-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486697\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Debate Dominates Cannes Buzz as Filmmakers Grudgingly Accept It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDemi Moore<\/a> was blunt.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAI<\/a> is here,\u201d Moore, a jury member at this year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival<\/a>, said during a press conference on Tuesday. \u201cAnd so to fight it is to fight something that is a battle that we will lose. So to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn social media, the reaction was swift<\/a> and often vicious, with some commentators blaming Moore for selling out and others faulting her for failing to recognize the danger that AI poses to the creative community. But throughout the festival, there was abundant evidence that AI is not only here, it\u2019s already reshaping how movies are produced.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the Cannes market, there were several films that not only acknowledged their use of AI, but used it as a selling point. They include \u201cCritterz,\u201d an animated family film from Stuart Ford\u2019s AGC Studio that bills itself as \u201chuman-led but AI-assisted,\u201d as well as \u201cParadise Lost,\u201d an adaptation of the John Milton poem from \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d co-writer Roger Avery and \u201cBitcoin,\u201d a thriller from \u201cThe Bourne Identity\u2019s\u201d Doug Liman, which features Gal Gadot, Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson. \u201cBitcoin\u201d is being produced by Ryan Kavanaugh, the controversial Relativity Media founder<\/a>, who is working the Croisette\u00a0as he drums up interest in his new venture, Acme AI & FX, which promises to help filmmakers with \u201cAI-assisted workflows\u201d and \u201creal-time image development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA year ago, some people were using AI, but they were embarrassed to admit it,\u201d says one veteran sales agent. \u201cThis year, they aren\u2019t even hiding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe reaction has been dramatically different than in past editions of Cannes, Sundance or other major film festivals, where AI was typically positioned as an agent of destruction. There are still fears that AI will replace actors in films (Tilly Norwood, anyone?<\/a>) and it\u2019s a virtual certainty that it will lead to fewer jobs in everything from animation to visual effects to script readers (those cuts are already happening). But there seems to be a growing sense that the best course of action is to find a way to protect copyrighted material and ensure that actors are compensated for their likenesses and voices being used by tech companies. Matthew McConaughey, for instance, had his legal team file for eight trademark<\/a>s, which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it\u2019s because I approved and signed off on it,\u201d McConaughey said in a statement. \u201cWe want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt one industry event after another, executives, producers and creative talent amplified Moore\u2019s message: Resistance is futile. Many saw AI as a chance to help them get movies on the screen that might have been deemed too costly or risky.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs a producer, I look at as a tool like any other tool,\u201d Laura Lewis, CEO and founder of Rebelle Media, said on a panel about the U.S. film business on Friday. \u201cIf it creates efficiencies, if it allows us to get something made that we couldn\u2019t make because you can\u2019t get the budget down, that\u2019s helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the same panel, Kent Sanderson, the head of Bleecker Street, argued that AI won\u2019t just lower the cost of producing movies; it will allow users to challenge major studios at their own game.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t avoid the fact that it is going to be a part of our business,\u201d Sanderson said, adding, \u201cIt is going to lower production costs, and yes, you probably will be able to make something that looks like a Marvel movie in your basement in a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Sanderson thought that the ubiquity of loud, dumb, spectacle-driven entertainment of the type that has dominated Hollywood slates may lead to a creative revolution. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat also means there\u2019s that\u00a0people might be looking for something else,\u201d Sanderson argued. \u201cBecause if something is so incredibly common and so available, people tend to go in the other direction and look for something new. So for me, that might be a hidden opportunity for real cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNot everyone is as sanguine about the potential that something positive will emerge from the technological disruption. In his opening press conference, Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fr\u00e9maux sounded a note of caution about a future shaped by computational systems.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have to be on our guard, but at the same time understand it a bit,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux said, adding, \u201cWhat I can say with certainty in relation to artificial intelligence is that we are on the side of the artists, the screenwriters, actors and voice actors. We stand with everyone whose job could be negatively impacted by artificial intelligence. It requires legislation. We need to control this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demi Moore was blunt. \u201cAI is here,\u201d Moore, a jury member at this year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,11519,31592,18,19,17,82,190864],"class_list":{"0":"post-486697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-cannes-film-festival","12":"tag-demi-moore","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-thierry-fremaux"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116580860884168372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}