AI in Filmmaking: Where Does the Technology Help and Where Does It Fall Short?

A new feature examines the growing spectrum of AI's role in cinema, drawing a meaningful distinction between AI-assisted, AI-generated, and AI-native filmmaking. On the assisted end, Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: Rise of a Legend used Brahma AI's VAANI component to lip-sync an English dub without reshooting—though early US press screenings reportedly found the effect jarring. Ben Affleck's Netflix film Animals also used AI in post-production, with Affleck noting it allowed the team to move faster on a grounded, human story. Netflix acquired Affleck's AI startup InterPositive for $587 million in March to further that approach.

At the other end of the spectrum, China's Sanxingdui: Future Past—billed as the country's first fully AI-generated feature—reportedly cost 10 million yuan and involved nearly 100 people over two years, yet grossed only 1.41 million yuan in its first week of release. The box office result surfaces a tension the broader industry is grappling with: AI can compress production costs and timelines, but audience willingness to pay theatrical prices for fully AI-generated work remains unproven. Turkey's Castle Walls (Surlar), which blended an AI video-generation model with human writers and voice actors, represents a middle path that may offer the most commercially viable near-term model.