What will the cinema of tomorrow look like? At a time when spectacular advances in generative artificial intelligence are revolutionizing industry practices, the audiovisual world is wondering about its future. Will we soon find ourselves captivated by virtual actors or animated films created without human illustrators? Will we marvel at visual effects generated by simple prompts? Will we go so far as to award a director working alone in their bedroom, far from any film set?
Fear is spreading through the profession. And yet, if there is one art form that has, for over a century, never ceased to imagine the future of humanity facing intelligent machines, it is cinema. From omniscient computers to androids aspiring to become human, from docile assistants to uncontrollable entities, the seventh art has shaped a rich imagination centered on artificial intelligence. These figures have fueled our fantasies as much as our anxieties, and relentlessly questioned humanity’s place in the face of machines.
Moving back and forth between this rich history of science fiction and a present that sometimes seems to be its extension, this film sets out to meet the people who are making today’s cinema. They are directors, screenwriters, actors, voice actors, visual effects specialists, and film studies researchers: all share their conflicted relationship with these technologies. A complex relationship, tinged with fear, enthusiasm, and uncertainty, that echoes the profound questions posed by the science fiction films that shaped their love of cinema.
Faced with the dizzying prospect of a world where art is no longer the exclusive domain of humans, what place will humans retain in the creative process? One thing is certain: we have entered a new era. Reality has never seemed so close to fiction…