Lights, camera, algorithm: OpenAI bets on AI film, targets Cannes debut

The total budget of OpenAI-backed film 'Critterz' is under $30 million. For context, the budget of Pixar's Inside Out 2 was $200 million

At the same festival halls where legends like Fellini, Scorsese,and David Lynch once premiered their work, next year’s line-up could feature something unprecedented: a film created largely by artificial intelligence (AI).

 

OpenAI, in a bid to show that blockbusters can be made faster and cheaper than traditional studio productions, is backing a feature-length animated film created largely with its own generative tools, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

 

The AI-made movie

 

The film, 'Critterz', is about forest creatures embarking on an adventure after a stranger disrupts their village, the report added. It was conceived by Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who began sketching characters three years ago using the company’s DALL-E tool.  Nelson made a short film with the same name using DALL-E in 2023.

 

“OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it’s much more impactful if someone does it,” Nelson told the Wall Street Journal.

 

London’s Vertigo Films and Los Angeles-based Native Foreign are co-producing, aiming to debut the movie at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026.

 

What changes?

 

Vertigo co-founder James Richardson said the team aims to complete the film in just nine months, which is faster compared to the production timelines of popular animated features.

 

Moreover, the budget of the movie is under $30 million. For context, the budget of Pixar's Inside Out 2 was $200 million.

 

How it works

 

The creators plan to hire actors to voice the characters and artists to sketch designs, which will then be fed into OpenAI’s image-generation tools.

 

The report further added that the script was written with input from the team behind Paddington in Peru, and Federation Studios, Vertigo’s Paris-based parent, is funding the project.

 

What it means

 

The AI film comes at a time when several industries, including cinema, are turning to the technology to boost efficiency. Yet the debate over AI copying artists’ work to create content continues. In 2023, actors and writers brought Hollywood to a standstill, demanding protections against the technology.

 

However, since then, many filmmakers have used AI in their films to help them with accents, visuals, etc. According to a report by BBC, Oscar-nominated film 'The Brutalist', which got Adrian Brody his second Academy award for best actor, used AI to fine tune his accent when he spoke Hungarian in the movie.

 

Similarly, in India, Eros International — the producer of 'Raanjhanaa' (2013) — recently re-released the film with an AI-altered "happy ending", replacing the original tragic climax. The move drew criticism from the makers of the movie and many other artists.

 

Entertainment giants like Disney, Universal and Warner Bros have also recently sued AI companies like Midjourney over alleged unauthorised use of their properties.