Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill. Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: jkanter@deadline.com.
This week: As Oscar voting gets underway, we speak to filmmakers who have proudly used generative AI in their pursuit of a gold statuette.
Look under the hood of the 2025 Oscar contenders, and you will find that AI greased the engines of certain movies. Whether it was voice-tweaking on The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez, or the blue eyes of Fremen in Dune: Part II, the technology was deployed and then (somewhat sheepishly) acknowledged during campaigning.
The big difference in 2026 is qualifying films proudly using generative AI, possibly for the first time in Oscars history. The technology is not just under the hood – in some cases, it is the car itself. This was no accident. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweaked its rules in April to make clear that the Oscar doors were open to artificial intelligence. “The tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination,” the organization said.
Its proclamation came at a delicate moment in Hollywood’s dance with AI. The technology is unavoidably growing in influence, but AI’s adoption still repulses many auteurs who have triumphed at the Oscars (Guillermo del Toro has literally been telling AI to go f**k itself in recent weeks).
One person who took note of the Academy rule change was Craig Lew. A former Dreamworks animator, he saw an opportunity to “make some history” by being among the first wave of AI-and-proud entries to the awards.
His short film, Ahimsa, qualified in the Animated Short Film category after Lew completed an Academy entry form, in which he explained that he used the likes of Runway and Google Veo to create his visuals, even though this transparency was not required. He chatted to Deadline’s Rendering column to raise further awareness with voters.
Ahimsa tells an earnest story of how AI trained on meditating children heals a world ripped apart by the technology. At first glance, it could be dismissed by detractors as AI slop, but Lew says detailed human work has gone into the final cut. The director used motion capture to bring characters to life, animated AI backgrounds using his VFX skills, and turned to composer Dino Herrmann (Troy) to score the short.
“It looks like AI because I’m not trying to fool anyone,” he says. “We’re ushering in a new look. Does it belong in the Academy race? Yeah, it does. AI is a paintbrush. It’s not the painter.”
‘All Heart’
Michael Govier and Will McCormack, the Oscar-winning filmmakers behind 2026 Animated Short Film entry All Heart, echo Lew’s sentiment, but with one key difference: they used a closed AI model, trained only on their artwork. The duo partnered with Asteria, the AI studio co-founded by Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne, on All Heart, which follows a father who meets a man with a connection to his late daughter.
“We created original artwork and hand-animated sequences the traditional way, and then we used AI in certain stages to explore visual possibilities, enhance textures, iterate on style, and accelerate look-development,” they explain. “AI didn’t replace the artists, it amplifies them.”
Another Animated Short Film qualifier also features bespoke AI. Mati Granica’s Flower_Gan, which won a bronze medal at the Academy’s student awards, used a custom-built generative adversarial network to create images of flowers, which he animated to create an anxiety-inducing polemic about the AI arms race.
Lucas Ansel, director of Oscar-qualified animation The 12 Inch Pianist, a joyful little comedy (in all senses) that uses traditional stop-motion, sees value in tailored AI being a step in a creative workflow. He is uncomfortable, however, with his film sitting alongside competitors using off-the-shelf generative AI platforms that opaquely scrape the internet. “I don’t think there’s any room for that,” he says. “You’re not creating singular, unique art.”
While a new crop of Oscar contenders are proudly using AI, there is nuance in how they use AI. This distinction is likely to become increasingly important as the industry conversation matures around the technology. Transparency will allow Academy members to vote with their eyes open. That feels like a step in the right direction, even if some may be appalled at the qualification of generative AI movies.