Three months after Elon Musk announced plans for an AI-generated film version of "The Odyssey," Grok released Episode 1 of the series, running seven minutes. The film was produced with Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker, and while AI-generated, it was criticized for lacking artistry and human interest.
Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas has signed on to star in "Cortés," an epic feature co-produced by AI film studio Utopai Studios and Ex Machina Studios, playing Spanish commander Hernán Cortés. The film is scheduled for release in 2027. The screenplay had been dormant for more than three decades after multiple failed attempts to bring it to production.
At a masterclass during the Lumière Festival, director Tsui Hark said AI is making it harder to judge the authenticity of content, as advertising, the internet, and AI blur the boundary between reality and illusion. He also linked AI to identity, saying its prevalence may affect how people understand themselves and the world. The festival is screening four of his classic films in a retrospective.
On October 3, the inaugural Astana AI Film Festival announced its winners. Latvian director Nikolay Shestak won the grand prize of $450,000 for "The First Honest Day," followed by entries from India and Spain in second and third place. Chinese team 2xLabs took the Best Story Award for "The Last Span." The festival received 8,067 submissions from 125 countries and regions, with 25 finalists using over 80 generative AI models.
At the 2026 Zurich Film Festival Summit, Particle 6 founder Erin van der Velden presented AI virtual actor Tilly Norwood, who took questions from the audience. She discussed Tilly having no talent agent, the studio's eightfold growth, and progress in AI advertising and film work, and announced the new project 'Storm Dog' with Rob Minkoff as executive producer, targeting a 2027 start of production.
In his first livestream, director Lu Chuan addressed the controversy over The 749th Boundary, saying AI is an efficiency tool that cannot replace authentic texture or narrative core. He revealed that his team's Sanxingdui: Future Past has obtained China's first public screening license for an AI-original feature film, with AI deeply involved in the whole process, and he also outlined other AI applications such as the dance drama Tiangong Kaiwu 2.0.
During the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, TapNow hosted an "AI × Cinema" event, launched Glanze, an overseas streaming platform described as the first focused on AI long-form content and IP incubation, and held an offline screening of selected IP works from the first season of its "10,000 Parallel Universes" project.