OpenAI-backed AI feature film ‘Critterz’ to premiere at Cannes

New Delhi: OpenAI is supporting the production of a full-length animated film created largely with artificial intelligence, which is expected to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May next year, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The project, titled Critterz, tells the story of forest creatures whose lives are disrupted when a stranger arrives in their village. It has been conceived by Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who previously produced a short film of the same name using the DALL-E 2 image-generation model.

Nelson has partnered with production companies in London and Los Angeles to expand the concept into a feature-length project. The film is being produced by Vertigo Films, based in London, together with Los Angeles-based Native Foreign, a studio known for combining AI with traditional production methods. Federation Studios, Vertigo’s parent company, is funding the film and has reportedly created a profit-sharing arrangement for the 30 people involved in its development.

The script has been written by some of the team behind Paddington in Peru. Production is already under way, with casting for character voices expected to follow.

One of the central objectives of the project is to complete the film in around nine months, considerably shorter than the three years typically required for animated features. OpenAI is providing its computational resources to support the process.

From OpenAI’s perspective, the project is intended to demonstrate the potential of its technology in the film industry. “OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it’s much more impactful if someone does it,” Nelson said. “That’s a much better case study than my building a demo,” he added.