A filmmaking tool or an existential threat: Cannes Film Festival weighs
the rise of AI
[May 19, 2026]
By JAKE COYLE
CANNES, France (AP) — The Cannes Film Festival can function like a
global water cooler for movies, with prevailing issues and anxieties
tending to come to the surface at the event. This year, the topic du
jour is artificial intelligence.
The 79th Cannes may go down as the time the world's grandest film
festival for the first time wrestled with the onset of AI — its arrival
has been felt like a tsunami on the French Riviera. Its potential to
remake the movie industry, for good or bad, has been an ongoing debate
since the festival opened.
And in many quarters, the tone is softening.
“The buzz in Cannes and the buzz in the industry, it does feel like it’s
definitely a turning point,” said Scott Mann, co-chief executive of
Flawless, a company that specializes in assistive AI programs for
post-production.
On screen and off, AI is much more present.
For the first time, Cannes has partnered with Meta in a new multiyear
deal. The company has set up camp at the Majestic Hotel. And its AI
tools were used to help produce a festival entry: Steven Soderbergh's
“John Lennon: The Last Interview.”
The documentary is about a lengthy and insightful interview Lennon and
Yoko Ono gave on the day Lennon was shot and killed in 1980. To add
imagery to match Lennon's conversation, Soderbergh used Meta's AI
programs to create surreal graphics.
The choice brought scorn from most critics in Cannes, but Soderbergh, a
highly skilled innovator who has shot movies on iPhones, believes its
time for such experimentation.
“We haven’t seen yet someone with a certain amount of creative
credibility go full-metal AI on something, and see how people react. I
think it’s necessary,” Soderbergh said in an interview. “How do you know
where the line is until somebody crosses it? I don’t think what I’m
doing crosses it. Some people may disagree. I don’t know where my line
is yet. I’m waiting to see.”
Everyone weighs in, for or against AI
Filmmakers, actors and others at Cannes have been drawing their own
lines, or at least making pronouncements about AI.
On opening day, Demi Moore, a juror, said fighting AI “is a battle we
will lose.” The next day, honorary Palme d'Or recipient Peter Jackson,
said: “I don’t dislike it at all. To me, it’s just a special effect.
It’s no different from other special effects.”
Filmmaker James Gray, whose starry family drama “Paper Tiger” was one of
the standouts over the weekend, said he's not worried.
“In some cases, it can be a very helpful tool,” said Gray in an
interview. “I don’t think in our lifetime, or even our children’s
lifetimes, it will come close to mirroring the only true infinite we
know, which is the soul.”
“The answer I think is that most young people should be studying the
humanities,” added Gray. “People should be reading Tolstoy in their
spare time to understand the human soul."
From Oscars to Cannes, it's a changing landscape
Cannes is unfolding in the wake of some significant new developments for
AI in Hollywood.
[to top of second column]
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Peter Jackson poses for photographers at the opening ceremony and
premiere of the film 'The Electric Kiss' during 79th international
film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP
Photo/John Locher)
 Earlier this month, the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Science announced new guidelines, ruling
that only performances “demonstrably performed by humans with their
consent” will be considered for acting nominations.
At the same time, the Oscar group also said AI tools “neither help
nor harm the chance of a nomination.”
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists recently reached a tentative agreement with studios
detailing and clarifying AI guardrails for things like the use of
digital replicas and synthetic performers.
Some advancements have sent shudders through Hollywood. The
unveiling of Tilly Norwood, an entirely AI-created so-called
“actress,” sparked outrage through the industry. Earlier this year,
the first look at a posthumous AI resurrection of Val Kilmer, for a
film made with his family's consent, spawned another round of
debate.
But while more extreme uses of generative AI continue to prompt
worry, other iterations continue to make inroads.
“It is going to be a part of our business,” Kent Sanderson, Bleecker
Street chief executive, said in a panel discussion. “It is going to
lower production costs, and yes, you probably will be able to make
something that looks like a Marvel movie in your basement in a
couple of years.”
While Cannes has stringent rules for what can and can't be worn on
its red carpet, it's issuing no decrees banning AI from film
selections — for now.
The day before the festival began, Cannes' artistic director Thierry
Frémaux wryly responded to a question about AI, noting that he had
also heard James Cameron had used special effects for “Avatar.”
“What I can say with certainty in relatin to artificial
intelligence is that we are on the side of the artists, the
screenwriters, actors and voice actors,” said Frémaux. “We stand
with everyone whose job could be negatively impacted by artificial
intelligence. It requires legislation. We need to control this.”
Mann, the Flawless executive, was sitting on the Cannes beach
outside a party his company was throwing in one of the seaside clubs
that regularly host movie after-parties. Since 2019, Flawless has
set out to demonstrate that AI can be used thoughtfully.
Unlicensed generative AI is bad, he states unequivocally.
“But what we’ve found is that the way people don’t understand is
part of the problem. AI as a term is seen as a catchall, but it’s
not that simple,” says Scott. “The truth is, our industry needs
saving. It needs a technological evolution, and this is offering
it.”
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