How will artificial intelligence, including generative AI, impact the film industry and its creators? That was one of the key questions discussed on the first day of LocarnoPro, the industry section of the Locarno Film Festival, on Thursday.
The discussion took place the day after the opening of the 77th Locarno International Film Festival, which featured a number of films dealing with AI as a theme, topic and technology.
During a well-attended panel discussion, Alex Walton, co-head of WME Independent, Katie Ellen, former BFI executive and now head of production at HanWay Films, and Romania's Ada Solomon, producer at Hi Film Productions and MicroFILM and vice president of the European Film Academy's board of directors (Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging, Loony Porn, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann) discussed the current state of the industry, including their thoughts on AI, funding, diversity, and more.
“The advances in virtual production are really exciting and AI is only accelerating that even more,” Walton said, crediting the industry with wanting to “bring the costs down” of filmmaking.
Ellen echoed this, speaking of financial pressures: “There's a lot of negotiation going on – who's going to defer fees, who's going to cut their fees? There's a very small share of the pie that's left.” There's a growing question of whether it's worth investing in films. “Who's going to get anything? Who's going to get paid? This is a business, this is people's livelihood, so costs have got to come down in whatever way,” she said. “And if AI helps with that, I don't know about the jobs issue, but if you can't make movies, nobody has a job.”
Solomon also said that AI can help make filmmaking cheaper and more efficient, meaning that it can help creators if they “control” AI and put them in control. Therefore, she argued that AI is “just a tool that we can use.” She concluded that the important issue to be discussed today is “how we use AI, or how AI uses us.”
“The target balls of success are getting smaller,” Ellen said, discussing recent trends, especially in the independent film world, adding that human feel and intuition come in handy, helping them choose projects that will find an audience.
Walton pointed to Amazon's script-reading algorithm, where predictive technology and models are already in use and continually updated. “So it's an inconsistent decision maker,” he said. “Obviously, there's human decision-making that comes into play after that,” but there are concerns that this process could be “dangerous” because it affects “the whole ecosystem,” “because you're selling up front and then you have to sell to the platform, or if you try to feed into the algorithm, then you have to sell later.” Walton concluded that this could create a “vicious cycle.”
Because film projects and productions can take years to complete, Ellen says following an algorithm that changes every three months can be “very problematic.” After all, “do you really create an entire project for a specific buyer and then realize a year and a half after you release it that they don't want it? And now you're happy with the project you created?”
The issue of film financing was also a focus for the Locarno Pro panelists. Solomon, for example, highlighted that Eastern Europe has fewer distribution platforms and financing opportunities than the US and Western Europe. She warned that public financing is “coming to the end of an era” and urged film industry players in the region to look for new models. The risk here is that some will say, “We want direct profits, we want direct commercialization,” which would jeopardize the independent arthouse films that she favors focusing on.
Is it getting harder to finance art-house films, especially for young filmmakers? “I make a lot of debuts,” she says. “I come from Dracula country, so I inject new blood. … There's a risk, but it's a risk you take. … If you break through, you can make more money than a director's fourth or fifth big film.” Solomon's lesson: You have less to lose if you fail. But if you pick your talent wisely, three out of five projects can be successful.
Talking about the film projects she is currently working on, she said she is making a film about a Roma woman in Romania who grew up in an orphanage and tells her story in a positive and empowering way.
For new filmmakers, a strong, experienced production partner who has “been through the process” is key. “Because talent wants to work with new voices,” Walton said. “So finding the right way to meet the talent that you think is a good fit helps with financing. If you ask a distributor who doesn't want to hire a new filmmaker, they're going to compete to buy that film because there's talent in it that they really value,” Walton explained.
“So it's been really challenging. We're doing multiple films with first-time filmmakers in Toronto this year,” Walton added. “Every single one of them has been really challenging at every stage, including getting the talent to ultimately get financing, but it's a hurdle that has to be overcome.”
The executive cited “a number of high-profile examples” of films that took a long time to finance and make, such as Whiplash, and concluded that discovering new voices is “the lifeblood of the industry” and that finding new filmmakers is key to the film industry.
Diversity and inclusion were also part of Thursday's discussion. Ellen, for example, said new voices such as Charlotte Wells, Charlotte Regan and Rich Peppiatt's Kneecap were among the success stories of public funding in the UK.
“The ground is shaking” was the theme of the StepIn 2024 program on Thursday, the first day of Locarno Pro, which touched on topics such as AI and the impact of the Hollywood strike, but also the rise of streaming and the future of the theater business and indie films.
Prior to the panel, Kelsey Farish, a media and entertainment lawyer with expertise in generative AI, shared her perspective in a session titled, “Scripting New Realities: The Role and Risks of AI in Modern Filmmaking.” A consultant with Reviewed & Cleared, she specializes in the intersection of personality and publicity rights, copyright, and the use of GenAI, including deepfakes.
Farish said her interest in AI and deepfakes began after reading a comment by Scarlett Johansson about adult deepfakes being created using her image. She noted that AI can be used for good things like content creation, production and post-production, but also to handle back-office functions like rights and royalties.
She also highlighted new opportunities in “maximizing talent.” “AI in the repetitive and technical aspects of acting, like ADR, allows actors to focus on the more creative and emotionally challenging parts of the performance, as well as other technical elements,” the expert said. “And for actors who use multiple digital replicas, it increases their earning potential – they can enjoy the sun and the beach while their AI replica does the work for them.”
Farish emphasized that while AI offers opportunities, it also offers many risks. She also said that while AI may be making progress, it lacks the authenticity and originality of humans, especially in complex scenes. “Will stories become homogenized? Will studios become hesitant to take creative risks?” she asked in one of her slides. “You can't guarantee success based on a few spreadsheets,” Farish further emphasized, noting that AI companies can't be sued for making incorrect predictions.
Meanwhile, using AI in post-production “may be too formulaic, because it lacks the human touch,” the legal expert said. He also said it's still up for debate as to whether AI-generated content should be judged and awarded in the same way as traditionally made films. And who should win an Oscar, for example – an actor whose digital image was used in the film, an AI programmer or their company?
For actors, key issues relate to control and consent, such as “how can we maintain agency over our digital likeness in a world where AI can recreate our appearance and voice?” and whether talent should have the right to approve or veto the use of their digital replicas.
Finally, Farish offered some tips for using AI: maintain human accountability and meaningful oversight, manage innovation strategically and responsibly, complement rather than replace human creativity, be transparent with employees, hire good counsel to stay ahead of case law and new policies, know your contract requirements and strategy (after all, there are currently over 20 large-scale AI-related lawsuits that could change the industry), and always ask yourself, “Does this pass the feel check?” — or, “Does this feel right?”
