Now Reading: AI reshapes filmmaking from pre-production to festivals
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AI reshapes filmmaking from pre-production to festivals
Filmmakers globally are increasingly using artificial intelligence to speed up pre-production, VFX, trailers, and even entire shorts. Hollywood directors such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh have adopted AI for storyboarding and…
The Story in Brief
Filmmakers globally are increasingly using artificial intelligence to speed up pre-production, VFX, trailers, and even entire shorts. Hollywood directors such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh have adopted AI for storyboarding and documentary sequences. In India, the 'Sardar 2' trailer used AI for VFX, and Vijay's 'Jana Nayagan' trailer sparked chatter after a Google Gemini watermark appeared. The Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF) has introduced a dedicated AI short film competition for 2026.
Industry voices agree AI cannot replace human creativity. Filmmakers Honey Trehan and Sridhar Rangayan call it a tool that needs ethical guidelines around consent and copyright. BISFF director Anand Varadaraj says AI filmmaking is still in its early days, with most entries under 10 minutes. AI advocates argue it lowers costs and lets storytellers in small towns visualise ambitious worlds that would otherwise remain on paper.
The Indian Opinion
The debate over AI in cinema too often swings between techno-utopianism, 'it democratises storytelling', and purist fear, 'it kills art'. Both miss the point. AI is a tool, not a creator. The real test is not whether a machine can mimic a landscape or a voice, but whether a film made with it can move an audience the way a human story does. The BISFF competition and the Hollywood experiments will answer one concrete question: can an AI-assisted film win a major award purely on merit, not novelty?
Sources (2): deccanherald.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
