The film industry is struggling to work out where artificial intelligence fits into the broader scheme of things, and nowhere is this tension more visible than at the Cannes Film Festival. Whilst Seth Rogen makes a passionate case for preserving the human touch, Demi Moore believes it is "a battle that we will lose."
Moore — the star of A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, and Disclosure — has urged the industry to find ways of working with AI rather than fighting what she sees as a losing battle. "AI is here," she said plainly. "And so to fight it is, in a sense, to fight something that we cannot win. To find ways in which we can work with it is a more valuable path to take." Speaking as a member of the Cannes jury, she was asked at a press conference how AI was affecting the industry, and her response was striking for its pragmatism. "The truth is there really isn't anything to fear, because what it can never replace is what true art comes from — which is not the physical. It comes from the soul."
Rogen, meanwhile, has no such equanimity. The actor, in Cannes to promote his animated film Tangles, was unambiguous in his contempt for AI-generated writing. He told Brut that anyone using AI to write a script "shouldn't be a writer." "I don't understand what it's supposed to do," he said. "Every time I see a video on Instagram that's like, 'Hollywood is cooked,' what follows is the most stupid drivel I've ever seen in my life. If your instinct is to use AI and skip that creative process, you shouldn't be a writer, because you're not writing." He added: "The idea of a tool that makes me write less is not appealing to me, because I like writing."
At the festival itself, generative AI is not permitted in competition. Yet the conversation about the technology's role in filmmaking is alive and ongoing. And at the Cannes market, that conversation has already translated into commercial reality. Several films openly acknowledge the use of AI in their production. The animated film Critterz, for instance, is billed as "human-led but AI-assisted." The film follows an anxious but brave woodland creature who unites with a group of eccentric outcasts on a quest to find her long-lost brother.
Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary is also embracing the technology, incorporating AI into Paradise Lost, his adaptation of John Milton's epic poem. Elsewhere, Bitcoin — starring Gal Gadot, Casey Affleck, and Pete Davidson — is being produced by Ryan Kavanaugh, founder of Relativity Media, through his new venture, Acme AI & FX.
Beyond the festival debate, however, lies a more troubling picture. Hollywood studios are producing fewer films and television shows than they were just a few years ago. Many productions are relocating to countries offering generous tax incentives. According to US Labour Department data, employment in the industry has dropped by 30 per cent from its late-2022 peak, affecting actors, carpenters, costumiers, and the hundreds of other professions that together make up the machinery of cinema. AI could accelerate that decline — or, if it makes production significantly cheaper, it might spark a new boom. The outcome remains genuinely uncertain. Many in the industry fear that Hollywood could come to resemble Detroit after the collapse of its car industry: corporate headquarters still planted in the city, but little of the actual work taking place there.
Some institutional pushback is underway. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently updated its rules and regulations, including new restrictions on the use of AI in acting performances eligible for Oscar nominations.
There are deeper anxieties too. AI-generated figures such as Tilly Norwood have raised fears about synthetic performers replacing human actors altogether. In response, there is growing momentum around protecting actors' likenesses and voices. Matthew McConaughey's legal team filed for eight trademarks, all of which the US Patent and Trademark Office granted in 2025. "My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it's because I approved and signed off on it," McConaughey said in a statement. "We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership, with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world."
The debate at Cannes, then, is not merely philosophical. It is a preview of a reckoning that the entire industry will soon have to face.