{"id":679759,"date":"2026-05-19T01:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679759\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:22:12","slug":"most-mainstream-films-already-use-ai-the-new-oscars-rules-wont-stop-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679759\/","title":{"rendered":"Most mainstream films already use AI. The new Oscars rules won\u2019t stop that"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has adjusted the eligibility criteria<\/a> for films vying for Oscars from 2027 onward. <\/p>\n

Films featuring actors generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are now ineligible, as are scripts that aren\u2019t demonstrably human-authored.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the rules do not ban AI \u2013 generative or otherwise<\/a> \u2013 altogether. The Academy explicitly acknowledged the widespread adoption of generative AI, and has left it to voters to determine whether a film\u2019s creative direction is substantively driven by humans.<\/p>\n

Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor framed it simply<\/a>: \u201chumans have to be at the centre of the creative process\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rules were imposed following specific controversies: the 2025 awards season surfaced AI voice modification<\/a> in The Brutalist, AI voice cloning<\/a> in Emilia P\u00e9rez, and varying degrees of AI use<\/a> in A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two.<\/p>\n

The resulting public debate has focused almost entirely on what audiences can see: generated faces, synthetic voices and digital resurrections. But this focus ignores the main areas of film production in which AI actually plays a key role.<\/p>\n

Cinema\u2019s automation history<\/p>\n

Automation tools have been embedded in cinema for longer than most people realise. <\/p>\n

When non-linear editing software Avid Media Composer launched in 1989, it replaced the physical<\/a> cut-and-splice flatbed editing process that had defined post-production for decades. This all but eliminated<\/a> traditional linear editing suites, and the skilled labour that went with them, within a few years.<\/p>\n

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) entered mainstream production<\/a> with Tron (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993). And by the mid-2010s, deepfake and neural rendering technology (distinct from generative AI) made it possible to manipulate human likenesses directly \u2013 such as de-aging Jeff Bridges<\/a> in the Tron sequel, Tron: Legacy (2010), and Michael Douglas<\/a> and Kurt Russell<\/a> in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.<\/p>\n

Generative AI aids and improves these existing processes. Director Robert Zemeckis used AI company Metaphysic<\/a> to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in real time, on camera<\/a> while shooting Here (2024).<\/p>\n

And the forthcoming film As Deep as the Grave will feature an AI-generated likeness<\/a> of Val Kilmer, who died in 2025. This is the most prominent case yet of AI being used to \u201cgenerate\u201d a performer who couldn\u2019t physically be present.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

These examples sit on an ethical spectrum, from de-aging a living actor to synthesising a performance based on a deceased star. The Academy\u2019s new rules attempt to draw a line somewhere on that spectrum. Where exactly that line should go is an ongoing question.<\/p>\n

Where AI is usually used in film<\/p>\n

The most pervasive uses of AI<\/a> in contemporary mainstream productions are usually invisible to audiences.<\/p>\n

For most studio-produced feature films, AI-assisted platforms<\/a> handle script breakdown in pre-production. They help with extracting production requirements based on the screenplay, scheduling shoots and modelling budgets. These tasks once took hours, or even days, to complete.<\/p>\n

On set, AI may be used to generate the background environments<\/a> for virtual production stages<\/a>. Originally used for TV shows such as The Mandalorian, these sets are increasingly<\/a> used as a cost-effective option in studio productions.<\/p>\n

In post-production<\/a>, AI tools<\/a> handle first-pass editing<\/a>, audio clean-up, VFX, and voice modification. For instance, Dune: Part Two (2024) used machine learning<\/a> to achieve the blue-eye effect \u2013 a minor enhancement audiences don\u2019t immediately register.<\/p>\n

Arguably the most widespread (yet invisible) use of AI is for localisation<\/a>, as streaming platforms pursue global audiences at scale. AI-assisted dubbing and subtitle generation are now standard processes.<\/p>\n

AI can also influence what films get made. Companies use algorithmic analysis to inform greenlight decisions, predict trailer performance, and optimise release windows. As Vue Cinemas CEO Tim Richards<\/a> put it, \u201c[AI] determines what we show at what cinema, on what screen and at what time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Automation and AI-driven processes have a long history<\/a> in film. Yet it is only now, amidst the deluge of AI-generated content, that these modes of filmmaking have attracted the public\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

Not a new problem, but a newly visible one<\/p>\n

The Academy\u2019s changes do not reflect a resistance to innovation \u2013 but a centring of human authorship.<\/p>\n

The most publicly legible creative contributions to a film should remain demonstrably human in origin. That\u2019s a reasonable position, with broad support across audiences and industry professionals alike.<\/p>\n

But it sits alongside the harder question of consent: not just whether AI was used, but whether the people whose likenesses, voices, and labour are implicated actually agreed to it. <\/p>\n

The Oscars\u2019 rules are about disclosure as much as eligibility \u2013 and they aren\u2019t alone. Many publishers and creative bodies are now formulating AI principles<\/a> that emphasise the need for transparency.<\/p>\n

The question isn\u2019t whether AI is being used in film and TV production; it is. The question is whether audiences have the right to know \u2014 and whether public discourse has caught up enough to know what it\u2019s even asking about.<\/p>\n

Generative AI is the latest inflection in a long history of automation \u2014 more powerful and fast-moving than its predecessors, but no different in the questions it raises.<\/p>\n

The pressing task now is making sure the frameworks for consent, disclosure and creative attribution keep pace with AI technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has adjusted the eligibility criteria for films vying for Oscars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-679759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}