Films made using AI can now be nominated for and win an Oscar, says the Academy – the industry group that votes on what films and actors win an Oscar award.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is made up of a group of over 10,000 members from the global movie industry.
The body decided earlier this week that the use of AI in any films would “neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination”.
The Academy also said that human involvement in a film’s creation would still be a consideration.
The news comes after a controversial recent awards season in March after creators of the post-World War II film The Brutalist revealed they had used AI in the movie’s editing process.
The film’s editor, Dávid Jancsó, disclosed that an AI voice technology called Respeecher was used to make the main characters, played by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, have more believable Hungarian accents.
Jancsó, who is Hungarian, said he recorded his own accent to use as a template to touch-up the character’s voices using AI whilst editing.
The Brutalist went on to win three awards at this year’s ceremony, including Best Actor, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography.
Another Oscar winning film, Emilia Pérez, also revealed using Respeecher in its post-production process.
The two films getting nominated received backlash from audiences, with some suggesting the use of AI in editing delegitimises creative talent and puts the movies at an unfair disadvantage.
The use of AI in Hollywood has been particularly contentious in recent years since the writers strike in 2023, which saw screenwriters walk out because of pay and concerns around the growing use of AI in film and TV writing.
These recent controversies has forced the Academy to address the legitimacy of the technology’s use in film production.
