Oscars considering requiring films to disclose the use of AI

Like it or not, AI is here to stay, but Hollywood is still struggling with how to use the technology. Over the last year, we’ve witnessed a handful of AI controversies, and according to Variety, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is now considering requiring films to disclose any use of AI for the 2026 Oscars.

Some of the year’s most-nominated films, including The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, and Emilia Pérez, have all used AI in some fashion. While the Academy has an optional disclosure form for AI use, it could be made mandatory by the next ceremony. We’ll find out for sure in April when the new rules are published.

AI technology is often used for visual effects, and the Visual Effects Society Awards’ emerging technology category offers some clues as to what films used it and how. One of the nominees is for Rising Sun Pictures’ Revize, which has been used for “a variety of digital ML augmentation, most notably face replacement, facial performance modification, de-aging, body replacements and other likeness adaptations.” Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was one of the films which made use of this technology. The production used the process to make the young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) look more like Anya Taylor Joy. “We built controls that the artists could use … to essentially dial in the exact specific look and very quickly iterate,” said Rising Sun’s machine learning 2D supervisor Robert Beveridge. “It was a real fine balance of not introducing too many of [Taylor Joy’s] sharp adult features when we had this younger actress playing her.“

“There should always been truthfulness,” said one veteran VFX branch member. “Awards decisions should be made knowing what the human artist did to achieve the results. And using new tools in innovative ways that pave the path forward for everyone else is a big contribution.“

They continued, “It’s important not to lose sight that this is about what supports the story. It’s never been possible to get a great digital performance that wasn’t based on a human actor … Honoring what all the crafts do together is what the season is about. I think any person in any craft will say it’s collaboration. That’s always going to be the case.“

The Brutalist, one of the front-runners for several Oscars, had its own AI controversy last month when it emerged that Respeecher was used to refine the Hungarian language dialogue spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. Director Brady Corbet quickly released a statement clarifying the use of AI in the film. “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents,” Corbet explained. “Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.“

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