Artificial intelligence has already changed cinema, but you may not have realized it

Most notable among the award-winning titles are Next Stop Paris by Stuart Acher, a poetic and magnetic encounter story, and Anomaly by Delphine Sicard Malafosse, a refined reflection on the concept of identity and difference, guided by a narrative voice in the style of a documentary. There is also the satire of A Feather and a Prayer (by Mathery, that is, Erika Zorzi and Matteo Sangalli) where birds become the latest fashion obsession and the visual suggestion of The Sea That Dreamed by Roxanne Ducharme, a dreamlike animation that seems to have come out of a collective dream. These are not simply films made "with AI"-they are films designed to exist because of artificial intelligence, often made with minimal teams, tight schedules, and tiny budgets, but with a visual and narrative impact that now rivals professional production.

This new creative wave is part of a larger context in which artificial intelligence is profoundly redefining the audiovisual industry. Already for years, machine learning technologies and neural networks have been employed in post-production, for example for de-aging actors (as in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, to rejuvenate Robert De Niro or in Captain Marvel, to bring Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg back into the 1990s), for vocal and facial regeneration, or for generative special effects as in Marvel blockbusters, including Avengers: Endgame and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

In any case, AI is no longer limited to the back-end of production. Tools such as Runway, Sora (from OpenAI), Pika or Kaiber AI allow entire video sequences to be generated from text descriptions, giving independent creatives the ability to produce complete film content without crew or actors. Self-editing software such as Descript or Wisecut speed editing with a precision that few human assistants could match. Meanwhile, platforms such as ChatGPT or Sudowrite are increasingly being used as co-writers: they help develop dialogues, explore narrative archetypes, and create stories from a few emotional or thematic inputs.

And even those who dominate the global streaming market have begun to expose themselves more directly. Netflix, for example, has admitted to using generative artificial intelligence for the first time in one of its own original productions: the Argentine series El Eternauta. In one episode, a scene of a collapsing building was made entirely with AI, completed ten times faster and at significantly lower cost than traditional methods. "We remain convinced that artificial intelligence represents a tremendous opportunity to help creators make better movies and series, not just cheaper ones," said platform co-CEO Ted Sarandos. "Our creators are already experiencing the benefits at the production stage, through pre-visualization, shot planning and visual effects." Words that reflect well the air in the industry today: not fear, but a combination of enthusiasm and caution. 

The emerging future is not just about increasingly advanced technologies, but about cultural change. The Hollywood festival proved it: the most poignant, funniest or visually boldest stories are no longer the monopoly of the majors. They can now come even from a small studio in Barcelona or a bedroom in Seoul, where a filmmaker works side by side with a generative model to bring to life something that, just a few years ago, would have been unthinkable. Storytellers today have access to completely new storytelling tools that can generate images, scenes, even whole worlds, without going through traditional channels. Big players like Netflix have realized this and are already moving forward, while a new generation of filmmakers is experimenting with hybrid forms of storytelling that combine human intuition with algorithmic efficiency. 

Opening image: Robert Zemeckis, Here, 2024