The Annecy Animation Festival has come under fire this year for accepting into competition a Japanese feature film that uses generative AI software as part of its production process. The festival has issued a statement defending its inclusion in the program.
A 68-minute film, Who said death is beautiful? Director Nakajima Ryo’s film will be screened for the first time in the festival’s Midnight Special section.
You can watch the trailer for the film below:
Stage greetings for the movie “Who said death is beautiful?” on December 22-23 at Human Trust Cinema Shibuya and Ikebukuro HUMAX. #Changjiang Liao,#Yurika Nakamura,#Rika Mayama,#Yamada James Takeshi,#momonnu #Ryo Nakajima There will be a mini live performance and a prize draw! We look forward to seeing you there! To reserve tickets, please visit the official website: https://t.co/wcLgOtww1a pic.twitter.com/cDO0PE916v
— Who said death is beautiful? (@zombi_friends) December 9, 2023
On their website, the filmmakers explain the technologies used in the film’s production. These technologies include AI, VR, motion capture, and virtual camera filming using an iPad. The AI software chosen was Stable Diffusion, but according to the making-of video posted by the filmmakers, it appears to have been used primarily for lighting after the core CG imagery had been created. Japanese speakers will be able to better understand this explanation of the film’s production process.
While the film does not appear to contain imagery of generative AI, it has nevertheless sparked several class action lawsuits, including this one from the visual arts community, and much online discussion about the ethics of platforming products like Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, a product created through theft and plagiarism of others’ work.
A representative response to Annecy’s acceptance of the film can be seen in this Linkedin post:
Annecy Film Festival artistic director Marcel Jean released a statement comparing AI to previous discussions the festival had about including computer animation and pixelation in its programming, but that explanation doesn’t get to the heart of the issue: Stable Diffusion is an illegally created product that exists only by appropriating the work of others.
Read Jean’s full statement below:
We have always declared that the Annecy Film Festival should offer a “global overview of animated films”. This year, we received dozens of submissions that used artificial intelligence in one way or another. We felt it was important to select a few of these works, so that the discussion and debate on artificial intelligence could be focused on concrete, concrete applications rather than being limited to theories and hypotheses. Above all, we believe that the presence of creators who use these tools is essential to the discussion. [sic] exist.
Film festivals like Annecy are not based on a dogmatic approach, and never have been: 45 years ago, festival audiences and critics were outraged by the films of Zbigniew Rybczynski. Tango The Grand Prix winner was a work that claimed it was not animated. Today, it is considered one of the greatest animated films of all time. Nearly 20 years later, controversy erupted over a film that used 3D software. Now, the new headache is AI. This technological innovation may be completely different from anything we’ve seen before. We need to ask questions. The debate is important, but we believe that to have an intelligent debate, we need to learn more about these works. This is why these works were shortlisted.