How is the film industry using AI, and how does that affect us as filmmakers?
AI is crashing Hollywood’s party — and not everyone’s thrilled about the uninvited guest. From Oscar-nominated films like The Brutalist and Emilia Perez to DIY YouTube shorts, artificial intelligence is slipping into scripts, storyboards, and special effects faster than you can say “generated by ChatGPT.”
It’s exciting. It’s unnerving. It’s a little bit Black Mirror.
While AI in filmmaking is still in its early days, it’s already stirring up both creative breakthroughs and ethical debates. Let’s explore how AI is reshaping Hollywood, what it means for the humans behind the camera, and whether creativity and code can truly coexist.
What is the current role of AI in filmmaking?
AI can be a good helping hand for filmmakers. We’ve already seen it used in a variety of applications, becoming a practical tool for artists in different departments.
Some examples from recent years include:
- Critically acclaimed film The Brutalist, a big name in the Oscars 2025 edition, implemented generative AI for the memorial video seen towards the end of the film. The team also used AI to subtly enhance the characters’ Hungarian accents.
- The makers of The Fall Guy, one of 2024’s biggest blockbuster films, used AI to polish up a few scenes. They even used machine learning to change one of Hannah Waddingham’s lines.
- A24 used AI-generated movie poster designs for the online marketing campaign of Alex Garland’s Civil War.
- The team behind Top Gun: Maverick used AI to recreate Val Kilmer’s voice, as the actor had sadly lost his voice following a throat cancer treatment years before the film was in the works.
- Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman used advanced machine learning — a precursor to some of today’s AI-powered tools — to de-age actors. Such technology has been widely used, and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises have also benefited from it.
Most of these films weren’t even on the AI skeptics’ radar because their applications were not that noticeable (well, for the most part). Ideally, every tool should be used in a moderate, precise, and intentional fashion in filmmaking.
The positive impact of AI in the film industry
AI is no enemy to The Academy, which recently announced that films using AI can win Oscars too. That was no secret, though, since Adrien Brody became the latest Best Actor award winner for The Brutalist, which used AI.
The Brutalist is clear proof that we can think of AI as the chisel instead of the sculptor. The photography, the soundtrack, and the film locations are all recognition-worthy achievements, and none of these were touched by AI.
While controversial, the application of AI to specific aspects of the movie doesn’t diminish Brody and Jones’s performances or the work and preparation the entire cast and crew put into bringing the movie to the big screen.
The prospect of AI in filmmaking as an auxiliary tool is exciting, and with all the things it will eventually be able to do, we can only dream of a new era of cinema. That being said, will there ever be a curve in the movie-making capabilities of AI? Will it come to a point where we’re craving less of it?
It may happen. Just like some of us watch the latest superhero movies and think, “There were movies with way better CGI a decade ago,” this idea will probably haunt AI as well. Yet again, as fun and powerful as AI can be, it’s a tool that must be used wisely.
AI and technical aspects of filmmaking
Something that’s still out of reach for AI (a concern for some, a relief for others) is its poor understanding of many of filmmaking’s technical aspects. AI copies and learns from what’s been done to imitate. But can it understand the reasoning behind a lighting choice? Maybe one day, but it’s not there yet.
Lighting is a difficult art to master, even for seasoned filmmakers. It conveys a message, highlights what matters, and plays an irreplaceable role in world-building. That is true for other technical aspects, such as the production design, the cinematography, and the score, just to name a few.
Ben Affleck’s take on AI is a clever way of understanding why this happens:
“AI is a craftsman at best (…) Craftsmanship is knowing how to work. Art is knowing when to stop (…) Knowing when to stop is going to be a very difficult thing for AI to learn.”
Of course, Affleck is far from being the only Hollywood figure who has shared their outlook on AI in filmmaking. Let’s dive deeper into this.
Hollywood’s different stances on AI
One of the main topics behind the 2023 strikes in Hollywood was the concern surrounding the rise of AI in the film industry and its impact on TV shows.
It’s not just about the fear that AI might replace jobs across every department in a production. A deeper worry that continues to weigh on actors, writers, and filmmakers is the non-consensual recreation of people: their likeness, their work, their culture, and other sensitive details.
During the strikes, Susan Sarandon expressed one of the key reservations among the protesting actors:
“It’s pretty clear to me that on a very primitive level, if you could take my face, and my body, and my voice, and make me say and do something I have no choice about, it’s not a good thing.“
The 2023 strike agreement stated, among other things, limitations that protect the actors from being copied or replaced without explicit permission and fair remuneration.
In 2025, this is an ongoing matter that SAG-AFTRA members are still working to improve by implementing initiatives and laws such as the NO FAKES Act, as actress and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher explains in the video above.
A promising sign of progress is that studios seem to be leaning toward tools like Runway or Imaginae. These filmmaking-oriented AI companies will likely operate within SAG-AFTRA’s post-strike guidelines.
Finding a balance between AI input and human creativity
Writers, actors, and other stakeholders in the industry are very wary (and with good reason) of AI ethics in filmmaking, as well as its limits and restrictions.
A common concern is whether creativity and human sensibility will ever be entirely replaced — or even convincingly imitated — by AI. Many people think that’s not going to happen, but we can’t tell for sure.
One thing we do know is that the film industry has always been reluctant to adopt new technologies out of fear that they would “ruin the art”: sound, color, and CGI all went through it. AI is no exception. So, just like with those innovations, it’s very likely that creators will eventually come around and find ways to adopt it.
AI and the promise of democratization
A frequent argument favoring AI is that it will help democratize access to the cinematic arts. There are a variety of points supporting this idea:
- Saving budget on equipment and resources. There is no need for super-expensive cameras or fancy video editing software, at least not for every project. AI allows cutting costs on specific tasks where creative input or technical knowledge is not required.
- More people have access to it. Anyone with a phone or computer can access AI tools without needing a film degree or industry connections. This opens the doors for a broader range of talents and stories (and maybe we’ll see fewer nepo-babies take the spotlight?).
- The big studios don’t get the last word. Similarly to what’s happening in the music industry, artists are walking away from big studios as they’re no longer the only route to market a movie. Even if filmmakers decide not to use AI in the production stage, they can choose to use it to craft a meticulously customized marketing campaign.
So, it’s fair to think that AI will help democratize filmmaking. But is this democratization for real, or is it just an illusion?
Only time will tell, but the good news is that the use of AI in movies is still being shaped. That’s the benefit of being in the early stages of adoption: filmmakers have time to pay attention to the fine print and ensure the terms of the tools they use are good enough.
At the end of the day, creatives get to decide whether or not to use AI and how to use it. Just remember: AI isn’t going anywhere. The key challenge with AI in filmmaking is figuring out how to use it to enhance the craft, not erase the people behind it.
Take your filmmaking projects to the next level with an Envato subscription, which gives you unlimited access to every kind of asset for any type of project alongside AI tools such as VideoGen and VoiceGen. And if you’re interested in learning more about the technology impacting the film industry, go check out our articles on the StageCraft virtual production tech and the rise of 3D animation.
