The Oscars may require transparency over the use of AI in making of films, as part of future submissions. More here.
AI is a topic that has dominated awards season this year. Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is a highest-profile casualty of a widespread aversion to the emergent technology, which is already claiming the jobs of humans amid fears that it will (and perhaps already is) undermining traditional craft and artistry.
It remains to be seen whether the outcry over the use of AI in The Brutalist hinders the film’s Oscar chances – it won the Best Picture award over the weekend at the Directors’ Guild of America Awards – but it has certainly become a lightning rod for the issue in the minds of Academy members and the wider public.
It’s far from the only film that will be present at this year’s Oscars ceremony that has embraced the technology, however. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two reportedly used AI for its Fremen blue eye effects, while Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga apparently harnessed the technology to alter the face of child actor Alya Browne so that she looked more like Anya Taylor-Joy, who played grown-up version of the title character.
Those examples come courtesy of Variety, with the outlet also reporting that the James Mangold-directed A Complete Unknown also used AI in several shots to make a motorcycle-riding stunt performer look more like the film’s star, Timothée Chalamet.
Given how uneasy voters seem to have become with the way the tech has seeped into the industry – many are describing it as the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ – the Academy is considering plans to make all films in contention for next year’s Oscars disclose whether AI processes have been used during their production.
The Oscar rules for next year are expected to be published in April so we’ll have to wait and see what kind of a stance the Academy ultimately takes. As for whether this year’s films will have been affected by anti-AI sentiment, we’ll have to wait and see on that front, with Adrien Brody’s augmented Hungarian dialect being perhaps the most controversial example given that it has seen a human actor’s performance altered by the technology (Emilia Perez has also used AI on singing voices, apparently).
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
