“Your customers do not want this”: Movie fans outraged by IMAX’s announcement of a new AI film festival

The future of AI and its impact on movies has been a hot debate lately — and now, it appears that IMAX has waded into the fray.

Featured Video

On July 28, the movie giant announced a new film festival dedicated to AI filmmaking. While the X post states that this is a “one-day event” that’ll take place on August 17, promotional graphics suggest that the festival will run from August 17 to August 20.

“Established in 2022, Runway’s AIFF is a celebration of the art and artists embracing new and emerging AI tools for filmmaking,” IMAX says in a website post.

Advertisement

“This special edition, limited-run IMAX screening brings this year’s ten winning films to theatres nationwide. With over six thousand films submitted to this year’s edition, these ten AIFF films offer a unique glimpse at a new creative era, selected by an acclaimed panel of jurors including Gaspar Noé, Harmony Korine, Jane Rosenthal and more.”

The event is set to take place at ten IMAX movie theatres across ten states, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, and Seattle, among others.

Cinephiles were pretty horrified

It’s fair to say that this move didn’t go down well with film fans. One X user wrote: “I expected better, IMAX.”

Advertisement

“Would literally rather watch The Room,” another added. “At least that was made by hand.” A third user, in reference to AI’s new “slur,” quipped: “Not watching anything made by clankers, sorry.”

Amid this outrage, film bros on X are meming the pain away. This included the above post about “the AI wars,” a meme of a would-be festival attendee donning a suicide vest, a reference to the fake Stephen Spielberg movie “Intelligence Artificelle,” and a screenshot of Jane Krawkowsi telling IMAX to go kill itself.

Advertisement

A further X user even shared a comedy sketch set in an AMC movie theatre. The sketch centered around an alternate future where AI movies are now the main form of film consumption. Needless to say, it painted a pretty bleak picture.

Still, the festival seems quite popular, given that there were over 6,000 submissions. Perhaps this reality will arrive sooner than we think.

Advertisement