AI’s Growing Presence in Oscar-Nominated Films
The use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking has become a hot topic, especially with the recent Academy Awards. This year’s ceremony comes with a subplot of controversy surrounding AI’s role in several nominated movies, including some in the Best Picture category.
Katey Rich, awards editor at The Ankler and host of the podcast Prestige Junkie, brings clarity to the conversation.
“We’re talking about so many different things, which is what makes it such a complicated issue… you’ve got two films, the “Brutalist” and “Emilia Perez,” which used a technology called respond feature to alter the way that the actors voices sounded with the actor’s permission. You’ve also got in the “Complete Unknown,” they use a different AI tool to make a stunt double’s face look more like the star, Timothee Chalamet.”
Rich notes that these applications have a lot of history in film.
“They’re all kind of small, subtle things, the kind of visual effects tweaks that we’ve seen in movies for decades and decades. And now that they’re using artificial intelligence to do them, that’s where some of the discomfort can come in and make it really hard to understand exactly how these tools are being used.”
The “Brutalist” Case: Accent Enhancement
Specifically, the film “The Brutalist” used AI to improve the Hungarian accents of some characters – a movie about a man immigrating to the United States from Hungary. The editor of the film defended the use of AI, emphasizing that the techniques were merely faster and cheaper versions of what had been done for years.
Rich explains that the core of the debate is a wariness of AI, especially its potential to affect human creative jobs.
“I think it’s that people feel this inherent distrust of AI and saying, oh, it’s helping, you know, enhance a performance in a way an actor couldn’t do… there’s a tendency to conflate use of that kind of AI in a really precise tool for the kind of generative AI that could replace jobs in Hollywood that people do have real fears about. It’s really about telling the difference between the two. And that’s where these things get kind of muddy.”
Union Concerns and the Future of AI in Film
The use of AI played a significant role in last year’s actors’ strike. Rich pointed out that in the case of “The Brutalist,” the actors Adrian Brody and Felicity Jones gave permission for their voices to be used, and they own their voice models. This prevents a computer from completely replacing their voices without permission, which was one of the main concerns of the strike.
The Academy is considering how to address AI use in film productions, including potential disclosure rules. However, regulations may prove difficult to enforce given that the tech is rapidly evolving.
“If this is a technology that’s growing so quickly, it’s going to have to change every year and assess what’s people’s comfort levels are. I think it’s going to evolve a lot in the coming years.”
Concerns have been voiced by unions in the industry about job losses due to AI. The conversation goes beyond complete replacement, however, with discussion on the effects on jobs in computer animation, specifically. AI can save time for people so that they can free it up to do something else, something more creative. The potential impact here cuts both ways.
Rich believes that with responsible application, AI can coexist with the creative people in the process.
“I think there are enough people who devoted to doing it that way that it could work successfully in the future.”
While the Academy updates its rules annually and could introduce changes for the next award season, it is unlikely to fully ban AI use. With AI tools becoming more accessible and affordable, disclosure may become the most practical path, if that.
