At the recently concluded Venice Film Festival, director Guillermo del Toro presented his latest work, Frankenstein. Reporters were eager to ask a key question: Does this film about the loss of control over artificial life serve as a metaphor for AI?
The reason behind this question lies in del Toro’s previous public statement: when making Frankenstein, he refused to rely too heavily on digital effects and green screens. Even though he is an Oscar-winning best director, not all filmmakers share his view. At this year’s Venice Film Festival, there were also many voices in strong support of AI’s involvement in film creation.
Against the backdrop of AI sweeping through various industries worldwide, the film industry itself is splitting into two major camps: the “AI supporters” and the “AI opponents”. It’s not an overstatement to say that this division is on the verge of sparking an “internal war”. Whether it’s formulating rules and boundaries for AI, or finding a proper role for AI to integrate quickly into the industry, these are urgent issues that remain unresolved. What is certain is that if filmmakers want to fight for the maximum benefits for themselves, they need to join this debate.
“The Opponents”: AI will steal our livelihood, then wreck the whole industry for us all
As mentioned earlier, when Guillermo del Toro was asked by reporters at the Venice Film Festival whether Frankenstein serves as a metaphor for AI, he replied: “What I fear is not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity.”
Del Toro is far from alone in his dislike for AI. A long list of screenwriters, actors, and concept artists prominently features names of those who share this sentiment. Many of them work at the forefront of the film industry’s creative chain, and their jobs are highly susceptible to imitation and replacement. The core of their protest against AI boils down to two things: survival and dignity. No one wants to be replaced by AI—and this holds true across all industries.
During its major strike in 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) listed AI protection as one of its core demands. Their concern extended beyond AI writing screenplays; they were more worried about studios using AI to reshape the work model: generating initial script drafts with AI and then hiring screenwriters merely to “revise” them. This would reduce screenwriters to the role of “polishers,” significantly cutting their pay and eroding their status in the industry.
The experience of many concept artists has been even more direct and painful. Artist Rad Souchen—who has worked on big-budget productions like The Matrix and The Hunger Games—revealed that over the past two years, as studios increasingly use AI tools such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion to generate concept art, his income has dropped by roughly half. The comparison images he created vividly show how AI can mimic classic scenes from Jurassic Park.
Since the rise of AI, a new joke has emerged: “We originally hoped AI would sweep floors and wash dishes for humans, leaving us free to write poetry and paint. Now, AI is the one writing poetry and painting, while we humans are still stuck sweeping floors and washing dishes.” For many artists, letting AI engage in art is nothing short of an insult.
“The Supporters”: AI is a Tool for Assisting Artists, and It Is Highly Useful
While del Toro was bringing Frankenstein to the Venice Film Festival, another film—Memories of Princess Monbi—which incorporates a large amount of AI-generated videos, also premiered there.
Memories of Princess Monbi is a sci-fi film that builds a grand futuristic African world on an extremely low budget. Director Damien Ounsel explained that he used AI to complete all VFX (Visual Effects), and although the entire post-production process was lengthy, he persisted in finishing 10 VFX shots every day. Eventually, he edited the final film from over 44 hours of footage.
Damien believes: “If I can use AI as a tool, I will have complete freedom to make a very niche or highly specific film.” He hopes AI will enable more African local filmmakers to tell their own bolder sci-fi stories.
Beyond independent filmmakers like Damien Ounsel, who work with limited budgets, not all big-name directors—those who can command budgets of over 100 million yuan at will—view AI as opposed to art. In the pro-AI camp, we see directors, producers, post-production technical experts, and even some shrewd talent agents. What they have in common is that they regard AI as a powerful tool—one that can unlock productivity, reduce costs, or create new value.
The Oscar-nominated film Brutalist used AI to fine-tune lead actor Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent, elevating his performance to greater perfection. An even more ambitious project comes from the technology company Showrunner, which announced a stunning plan: using AI to reconstruct the 43 minutes of footage from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons that was destroyed by the studio. The project will combine live-action shooting with AI facial and pose transfer technology, and based on the 3D set models that filmmaker Brian Rose has reconstructed over the past five years, it aims to restore the original version of what might be the greatest film ever made.
Conclusion: Embrace Change, or Be Left Behind by It?
The impact of AI on the film industry is not evenly distributed. It poses the greatest threat to jobs that are highly “executive” and “repetitive,” while potentially benefiting roles that require “strategic” and “integrated” thinking.
This is reminiscent of the advent of sound films a century ago, or the popularization of CG technology decades ago. Every wave of technological change brings growing pains, unemployment, and panic, but in the end, it also gives rise to new art forms, new job positions, and new business models.
For all those working in film and television, instead of fearing that AI will take their jobs, they should think about how to become someone who can master AI. Because in this future competition that has already begun, one thing is certain: those who cling to the past will be the first to be eliminated. After all, Director del Toro has already told us—what is truly terrifying is never artificial intelligence, but “natural stupidity.”
