AI-Native Studio Utopai Opens MIPCOM, Partners with CJ ENM Studios

On October 13, Utopai, an AI-native film studio, delivered the opening keynote at the Grand Auditorium of MIPCOM in Cannes. The company said AI-native studios are moving from concept to delivery, and a new production system built around original IP, human creativity, and proprietary film infrastructure will redefine content production and global distribution.

During the keynote, Utopai announced it is advancing cooperation with South Korea's CJ ENM Studios. On the same day, Antonio Banderas was announced to star in "Cortés," a theatrical feature involving AI, written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Kazan. The project had long been considered unproducible due to its massive scale and cost.

Utopai describes itself as a story-first studio covering development, financing, production, and global distribution. Its video model Utopai X ranked second globally and first in the U.S. on Artificial Analysis's blind ranking of audio-based text-to-video models, scoring 1149. Its production intelligence platform PAI has generated $11 million in annual recurring revenue. The company also unveiled three theatrical releases for 2027: "The Most Serious Fart," "Cortés," and "Half Moon."

Utopai has also partnered with Huace Film & TV in China and DeNA in Japan, and became the first AI-native studio to join the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. It has established a global presence with offices in Mountain View, Los Angeles, Seoul, Tokyo, and Berlin.