{"id":641983,"date":"2026-06-16T17:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641983\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:13:09","slug":"guillermo-del-toro-sounds-alarm-on-ai-and-threats-to-creative-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641983\/","title":{"rendered":"Guillermo del Toro Sounds Alarm on AI and Threats to Creative Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGuillermo del Toro<\/a>\u2019s innate love of film comes through when he speaks, even when he\u2019s sounding off with a dire warning about what is at stake as the film industry is rocked by AI and the forces of business consolidation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are on the verge of image illiteracy. We are on the verge of cinema illiteracy,\u201d del Toro told the industry crowd gathered Monday night for the BFI<\/a> America dinner event held in Hollywood to celebrate del Toro\u2019s selection for the prestigious BFI Fellowship kudos.<\/p>\n

\n\tDel Toro, the Oscar-winning helmer behind \u201cPan\u2019s Labyrinth,\u201d \u201cHellboy,\u201d \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d and last year\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d sounded the alarm about the encroachment of AI in what has heretofore been the thoroughly human-led process of making art.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe human desire to express oneself is as old as the first images crafted on ancient cave walls in antiquity, he stressed. Del Toro also nodded to the rising tide of political polarization that threatens creative freedom around the world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe pact between man and image is sacred,\u201d del Toro told the starry crowd at Mother Wolf. Art can help bring people together, he said, \u201cbut we are in a time when that is in danger.\u201d He called artificial intelligence a form of \u201cnatural stupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are told images can be generated by artificial means. The existence of an image is not just to be there. It is to connect us, to make us feel beauty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNetflix\u2019s Ted Sarandos and multihyphenates Bill Hader and Jon Favreau at the BFI America dinner in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTodd Williamson\/January Images for BFI<\/p>\n

\n\tDel Toro told the room that his ties to the British Film Institute<\/a> go back to his teenage years growing up in Guadalajara, when he would write to the BFI to have them send 16mm prints of titles from the legendary British helmer Carol Reed and other classic films to screen for his cinema club.<\/p>\n

\n\tDel Toro\u2019s heartfelt speech lived up to the advance billing from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who introduced del Toro as a one of the modern masters of film. Sarandos noted that he first met del Toro when he was shepherding an animated adaptation of \u201cTrollhunters\u201d for Netflix. At the first creative meeting for the show, Sarandos got a crash course in why del Toro is so renowned among his fellow filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI went into the meeting thinking, \u2018Why is this master filmmaker steering what I thought was a cartoon for us?\u2019\u201d Sarandos recalled. \u201cAnd then I watched Guillermo create a universe in front of my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe BFI fellowship is the highest honor that the organization can bestow on a filmmaker as recognition of their impact on the world of film. Del Toro told the crowd he was \u201cmoved\u201d when he finally got the chance to visit the BFI\u2019s voluminous vault that stretches back to 1935. Del Toro has pledged to donate one-third of his own papers and archives to the BFI archive.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn introducing del Toro, BFI CEO Ben Roberts told the crowd, \u201cThe heart of the BFI is the National Archive \u2014 one of the greatest collections of film in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe intimate room was packed with boldface names including Netflix\u2019s Bela Bajaria and Dan Lin; Warner Bros. Pictures\u2019 Pam Abdy; former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing; and filmmakers Jon Favreau, Michael Mann, Bill Hader and Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n

\n\tDel Toro emphasized that he is moving into the \u201cgiving back\u201d phase of his life by working with organizations such as the BFI to teach and advocate for film. Del Toro said he plans to teach classes on the genius of early Alfred Hitchcock films for the BFI.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are not gatekeepers. We are gate-holders so more people can come in and out of the church of cinema,\u201d del Toro said. \u201cI\u2019ve been saved by images so many times in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBFI CEO Ben Roberts<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTodd Williamson\/January Images for BFI<\/p>\n

\n\tThe miracle of film is its permanence. Movies are living entities that are spark anew every time someone takes in a classic like Preston Sturges\u2019 beloved 1941 film \u201cSullivan\u2019s Travels\u201d for the first time. \u201cThese films are never from the past,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen someone sees them for the first time they are present.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDel Toro\u2019s impassioned speech blended the highs and lows of this moment when movies can travel farther than ever before with the flick of a button. (\u201cI celebrate all the love that we all bring to it,\u201d he enthused.) But he reinforced his larger point that the industry needs to rally around filmmaking with a vehicular metaphor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRight now, the bus is so close to a cliff, we all have to lean to the right side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fundraiser hosted by BFI America will support the organization\u2019s annual Film on Film Festival that will return to London next June. BFI chief Roberts told Variety that the BFI\u2019s festival and its expansive film preservation efforts are part and parcel of its charter to advocate for the art of film and the needs of the British film industry itself.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn top of our cultural role, where the U.K. is lead body for film, we\u2019ve got a role working with government and industry on shaping policy and looking ahead at what\u2019s coming down the pipe,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWe say our job is to ensure that the conditions are right for success in filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guillermo del Toro\u2019s innate love of film comes through when he speaks, even when he\u2019s sounding off with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[38902,38040,6491,96,18004,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-641983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bfi","tag-british-film-institute","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-guillermo-del-toro","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}