New York – NEW YORK (AP) – The use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking is exploding. A young film festival (now a junior) is showing what this technology can do on screen today.
The company specializing in AI-generated videos, the annual AI Film Festival organized by Runway, started in New York on Thursday night, with ten short films from around the world making their debut on the big screen.
“Three years ago, it was a crazy idea,” Cristóbal Valenzuela, CEO of the runway, told the crowd. “Today, millions of people use the tools we dreamt to make billions of videos.”
The festival itself has developed significantly since its debut in 2023. Valenzuela said about 300 people submitted the film at the beginning, and about 6,000 submissions were received this year.
The one and a half hour lineup is full of creative styles and ambitious themes – Jacob Alder’s “Total Pixel Space” brings home the festival’s highest award. This 9-minute and 28-second film questioned how many images (actually or not) exist in the digital space and used math to calculate huge numbers. A series of stunning images, from familiar moments of life to those who completely bend reality, gives viewers a glimpse of what’s there.
Meanwhile, Andrew Salter’s Andrew Salter won second place, documenting the journey of chickens – from the bird’s perspective to the human prison in the UK, participating in a joint manufacturing program. Ricardo Villavicencio and Edward Saatchi’s “One” about interplanetary travel, a futuristic story.
The 10 films on display are from this year’s submission to the thousands of finalists at the Runway AI Film Festival. The shorts will also be displayed at screenings in Los Angeles and Paris next week.
How judges use and execute AI is a factor in the assessment when determining the festival champion. However, not all movies are made entirely using AI. While the submission criteria require that each movie include videos generated using AI, there is no set threshold, meaning that some movies can take a more “mixed media” approach, such as combining live shooting of actors or real-life images and sounds with AI-generated elements.
“We are working hard to encourage people to explore and experiment,” Valenzuela said in an interview before the screening on Thursday.
Using Generative AI to make coherent movies is not an easy task. It may require a long list of directions and numerous detailed tips, and can even make a brief scene reasonable and consistent. Nevertheless, the range this technology can do has grown significantly since the first AI film festival in 2023 – Valenzuela said, which is reflected in today’s work. Although there are still limitations, AI-generated videos are becoming more and more life-like and realistic.
Runway encourages the use of its own AI tools for films entering the festival, but creators can also turn to other resources and tools when organizing movies – throughout the industry, tools for using AI to create videos from text, images, and/or audio prompts have improved rapidly in recent years, while gaining more and more available availability.
“This technology (this technology) lives in film and media culture and popular culture,” said Joshua Glick, associate professor of film and electronic arts at Bard College.
He added that the Runway’s Film Festival is one of the few display contests designed to attract the creativity of AI, with companies in the field looking for the “legality and recognition” of the tools they are creating, with the aim of solidifying a partnership in Hollywood.
AI has already existed in Hollywood and may be more extensive than many moviegoers realize. Glick notes that, besides the large budget movies for “De-Age” actors or “engaging” (sometimes controversial) applications that create compelling stunts, the technology is often incorporated into a range of post-production edits, digital embellishments, and other behind-the-scenes work (such as classified footstep volume).
Industry executives repeatedly point out how AI can improve efficiency in the filmmaking process – allowing creatives to perform a task, such as spending hours in a few minutes and facilitating further innovation.
Nevertheless, the rapid growth and adoption of AI has also increased anxiety about emerging technologies, especially its impact on workers.
Vanessa Holtgrewe, vice president of IATSE International, said in an emailed statement that the international alliance of international stage staff represents behind-the-scenes entertainment workers in the United States and Canada – “has long been embracing new technologies that enhance storytelling.” “But we are also very clear: AI cannot be used to undermine workers’ rights or livelihoods.”
IATSE and other unions continue to meet with large studios and provide guardrails for the use of AI. Screen Actors Guild Television and Radio Artists Federation also protects its members’ AI as a voice, a key point in recent labor action.
For Runway’s AI Film Festival, Valenzuela hopes to show what it is possible to combine AI-generated videos to show what it is possible – he says the technology can help in the work they do today, rather than get hurt.
“It’s natural to be afraid of change … but it’s important to understand what you can do,” Valenzuela said, adding that even filmmaking was born “because the scientific breakthroughs at that time were very uncomfortable for many people.”
