Director James Gray says, ”While it may be a very useful weapon in some contexts, I don't think that even in our children's lifetimes this thing called AI will be able to come even close to the ultimate true self as we know it.”
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The ongoing Cannes Film Festival in France is a dynamic platform for addressing current issues and concerns for films. This year, the main topic of interest in the film industry is becoming artificial intelligence (AI).
The 79th Cannes will probably be remembered for the first time when it struggled with AI. However, the debate over AI is currently raging on the Riviera, where Cannes is held. Where AI is predicted to reshape the entire film industry, everyone is interested in whether it will be beneficial or detrimental in the future. But for some, the fear generated by AI is gradually subsiding.
“I think the discussion that is happening at Cannes or the discussion that is going on in the film industry as a whole could be a milestone,” said Scott Mann, co-chief executive of Flawless, a company that has been using AI in film post-production. However, the spread of AI these days is from onscreen to offscreen.
Cannes has signed a multi-year agreement with Meta for the first time. For this, Meta has set up its setup at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes. This time, Steven Soderbergh took full help of AI in the documentary ‘John Lennon: The Last Interview’, which was entered into Cannes. Soderbergh has prepared the documentary by visualizing the radio interview that John Lennon of the Beatles gave to Yoko Ono about his new album ‘Double Fantasy’ on the day he was shot and killed (on December 8, 1980) with the help of AI.
Soderbergh has prepared Lennon’s video material with graphics that look very close to reality through an AI program to match the audio interview. However, most of the critics of Cannes have criticized Soderbergh’s work. But he not only made a documentary with the help of AI by shooting it with an iPhone, but also entered Cannes. The same experimentalist Soderbergh believes that now is the time to test new technologies.
‘We haven’t seen a creator with the creative credibility to use AI and see how people react to his work. I think it’s important now,’ Soderbergh said in an interview, ‘If no one crosses the line, how do you know where the line is? Some may disagree with my work. But I don’t think what I’m doing crosses the line. I still don’t know where my line is? That’s what I’m waiting for.’
Heated debate for and against AI
Filmmakers, artists and other participants present at Cannes are also standing up for and against AI and making their own arguments. In the opening session of Cannes, actress Demi Moore, one of the jury members, opened the door to debate. She said that filmmakers are certain to lose the battle with AI. “This is a battle that we are certain to lose,” Moore said, while Peter Jackson, who was awarded the honorary Palme d’Or the next day, added, “I don’t reject AI completely, to me it’s nothing more than a special effect. It’s not much different from that.” James Gray, the director of the
family drama “Paper Tiger,” who is receiving rave reviews at Cannes for its premiere, also said that he is not particularly worried about AI. “In some ways, it can be a very useful weapon,” Gray said in an interview. “I don’t think that in our lifetime or our children’s lifetime, this thing called AI will come even close to the ultimate true spirit that we know.” Instead, he emphasized the need for today’s youth to study more about humanity, to show how important and irrefutable the Creator is than AI. He said, ‘People should read Leo Tolstoy in their free time to understand the human soul.’
The shift from Oscars to Cannes
With the uproar over AI in Hollywood, Cannes is now also facing this issue. Earlier this month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) also announced new guidelines, which state that only the actor’s pure performance should be used for acting nominations. Oscars has stated that AI tools will neither help nor harm nominations.
Similarly, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has also recently reached a tentative agreement with film studios to create clear guidelines on the use of digital replicas and synthetic performers. Even after the emergence of Tilly Norwood, the so-called first AI actress aka synthetic performer, who was completely AI-created, most Hollywood actors are wary of AI.
The first look of Kilmer, who was created posthumously by AI for a film made with the consent of Val Kilmer's family, sparked new debate in early 2026. But while the extreme use of generative AI is raising concerns, other aspects have also come to the fore. “It’s becoming part of our business,” Bleecker Street CEO Kent Sanderson said sarcastically about the use of AI during a panel discussion at Cannes. “Yes, it will reduce the cost of filmmaking, and in the next year or so you could probably make movies like Marvel movies in your basement.”
The day before Cannes began, its artistic director Thierry Fremaux joked in response to a question about AI, “I even heard that James Cameron used special effects for ‘Avatar.’” He said he was on the side of artists, writers, actors and voice actors, adding, “We stand with anyone whose work could be negatively affected by AI. We need laws for this. We need to control it.”
