The Oscars introduce new rule which allow AI-generated films for big awards
The Academy Awards have introduced a new change that allows films made with the help of artificial intelligence to win massive awards. The use of AI in movies has already been a controversial topic as The Brutalist received backlash after the movie's editor, Dávid Jancsó, revealed AI was used to create a more convincing Hungarian accent.
It still went on to win Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Music at this year's awards show. And now, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed that movies using AI tools will be able to qualify for awards. According to the rules, AI use won't automatically boost or reduce a film's chance of getting a nomination.
The Academy said the most important part is the percentage of human creativity involved in the entire process, which means the AI technology can only assist in the project but not be a huge part of the storytelling or take over the entire thing.
Emilia Perez, who won Zoe Saldaña an accolade for Best Supporting Actress, also used voice-enhancing software for its musical numbers.
Meanwhile, The Brutalist's film editor Dávid Jancsó revealed in a previous interview with Red Shark News the ways in which the movie's film team used A.I., and why they initially implemented it.
It utilised artificial intelligence to fill in minor language gaps coming from Adrien Brody and his co-star Felicity Jones during a distinct part of the movie.
"I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce,' Dávid told the news outlet. 'It's an extremely unique language."
For a few minutes in the movie, a letter from Adrien's character he had written for his wife is read out loud. His character's letter is read in Hungarian. According to TheWrap, this was the only part of the Adrien's performance that Respeecher was used for.
'If you're coming from the Anglo-Saxon world certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp,' Dávid explained. 'We first tried to ADR these harder elements with the actors.
"Then we tried to ADR them completely with other actors but that just didn't work. So we looked for other options of how to enhance it."
The production team used the actor's voices on Respeecher and added in AI words in Hungarian.
'Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there. We were very careful about keeping their performances,' he continued.
'It's mainly just replacing letters here and there. You can do this in ProTools yourself, but we had so much dialogue in Hungarian that we really needed to speed up the process otherwise we'd still be in post.'
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Times
20 hours ago
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The academy players with more YouTube fans than game's biggest stars
They are famous footballers with millions of fans, watched live by thousands every week. Some earn big money — well above the national average — and attract sponsorship deals from prestigious international brands. It is not only their skills that are in demand. Holidays, haircuts, homework — it all makes waves, with every detail made public. After all, the aim is not to shut down, but to open up. These are not Premier League stars, but academy footballers, telling the world about their climb to the top. For a long time, the game's youngsters kept their heads down as they made their way up the ranks. Stuart Pearce had to play in secret for his mates' team as a boy, by adopting a fake name and hiding away as a goalkeeper. Inside training grounds, scrubbing the pros' boots with brushes was about as close as the kids came to stardom. 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Many also offer invented games and challenges, or lift the lid entirely on their everyday lives, with trips to the barbers or a run-down of what's for breakfast. Many of these emerging players are hugely popular, while a select few boast followings to rival even the biggest names in the game. Lorenzo Greer, 16, has just been offered a two-year scholarship at Birmingham City, and his 'Tekkerz kid' YouTube channel, which he started aged six, now has 1.7 million subscribers — more than double Jude Bellingham's 896,000 — with his 651 videos attracting more than 492 million views. Tashall Sandhu, YouTube name 'Tash Baller', has 220,000 subscribers, with videos of him playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-13 and celebrating 100,000 subscribers aged nine. Faran Ahmad, who plays for Leicester City Under-12, uploads near-daily home videos with a total of 7.6 million views. One of Ahmad's most watched videos — 'Come Shop With Me (academy player)' — is of him on a visit to Sports Direct. 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Spectator
2 days ago
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Captain Britain was an embarrassing superhero
The news that the latest Superman picture has been an enormous hit in the United States, but has been received rather more tepidly here, has been taken in many quarters to mean that there is an anti-American mood at large. Maybe this is dictated by America's choice of president and administration, which means other countries are no longer as enamoured of that quintessentially all-American superhero. Alternatively, it could of course mean, as this magazine's critic Deborah Ross has suggested, that the film simply isn't very good and that we should all stick to the 1978 Christopher Reeve picture instead. Whatever the reason, the USA is Superhero Central, and no other English-speaking country has ever had much luck creating its own comic book superstars – perhaps because we don't have the same traditions of uplift and go-getting optimism that they do in America. There does, however, remain one little-heralded exception to this, and that is none other than Marvel's character Captain Britain. Captain Britain was introduced in 1976 as part of the company's attempt to branch out into the British market via their operation Marvel UK. Looked at today, the character seems somewhat misguided, to say the least. He was created by the Anglo-American writer Chris Claremont and Incredible Hulk artist Herb Trippe, and his non-heroic alter ego was Brian Braddock – a Fettes-educated aristocratic layabout who is recruited by Merlin and his daughter Roma to save Britain (or Avalon, as it is quaintly known) from the evil ministrations of Morgana Le Fay. Throw in the Captain Britain Corps, Braddock's twin sister Betsy (who eventually took on the mantle of Captain Britain), and you have something that baffled comic book readers when it was launched. It never recovered, and swiftly spluttered to an end after 39 issues. Marvel have not been known for their willingness to abandon characters, however, and Captain Britain was occasionally resurrected over the following years, with some big names involved in the process. Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen supremo Alan Moore briefly came up with some storylines in the early 1980s – only to depart when his invoices weren't paid, a decidedly un-heroic end to his time with the company – and none other than Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant served as the character's original editor when he worked at Marvel between 1975 and 1977. He helped to anglicise dialogue and attempted to point out where characters needed to have additional clothing drawn onto them, for reasons of decency. Although Tennant had suggested the idea of a British hero, his initial concept had been closer to an indomitable second world war fighter (somewhat like Captain America) than the rather strange concept of a man who dons a Union Jack leotard, likes to hang around the lions at Trafalgar Square, and has an oddly flirtatious relationship with his twin sister. As Tennant remarked to the New Statesman last year, the character was doomed. 'It wasn't my idea – and it was a mistake. I called up New York and said, now, it's 1976 and the National Front are huge. You've got the Stars and Stripes: the United States is a very diverse country, and there's an ideology behind your flag. Ours, there isn't. What it means to a lot of people is 'Nazi'.' Perhaps he's right. Squeamishness about the flag is a peculiarity of the British bourgeoisie. Urban middle-class parents simply weren't – and still aren't – interested in soft nationalism. Tennant and his fellow Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe later jokingly alluded to the character in their 2009 song 'Building a Wall', which features Lowe sarcastically joshing 'Who do you think you are, Captain Britain?' A decade and a half later, it remains clear that, while British actors such as Andrew Garfield, Christian Bale and the previous Superman Henry Cavill might excel at playing superheroes on screen, there is something embarrassing, even tawdry, about the idea of anyone seeking to create a Captain Britain. The reason why American superheroes succeed is that they can unblushingly – and unironically – cite truth, justice and the American way as their motivation. The British equivalent would probably blush and say something self-deprecating about wanting to make a difference when it counted, which is not quite the stuff of super-heroism. Personally, what I'd like to see if ever there had to be a very English comic-book character is a tea-drinking type who, when he or she isn't fixing potholes and trying to calm traffic round the North Circular, is taking part in neighbourhood disputes and preventing Tube fare dodgers from bursting through the barriers. I'm not quite sure, though, whether the world is ready for Jenrick-Man – or whatever this character would end up being called. Still, at least they couldn't be any more of an embarrassment than the ignoble, failed Captain Britain.
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
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'Hollywood's most romantic film' with 'magnetic' couple has near-perfect 99% rating
Casablanca is a romance film for the ages. The iconic movie sees two former lovers, masterfully portrayed by old Hollywood legends Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, reunite against the backdrop of World War 2 Casablanca is a timeless romance film. The classic movie features two former lovers, brilliantly played by old Hollywood stars Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, reuniting amidst the turmoil of World War 2. In the film, Rick, a nightclub owner in Casablanca, encounters his past love, Ilsa, who is now married to a dashing fugitive fleeing from the Germans. As one of the most memorable lines in cinema history goes: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." Ilsa pleads with Rick for assistance in escaping the country, compelling him to make a heart-wrenching choice between love and sacrifice. Interestingly, the film was released in 1942, three years before the war ended when victory was still uncertain. Why is Casablanca so beloved? Casablanca won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Over seven decades since its release, the film reigns as one of the greatest ever made. The film boasts an impressive 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As the website's critics consensus states: "An undisputed masterpiece and perhaps Hollywood's quintessential statement on love and romance, Casablanca has only improved with age, boasting career-defining performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman." The actors' chemistry and the film's unforgettable lines are two major points of praise for viewers and critics. "Casablanca is one of the most romantic films that Hollywood has ever produced," penned film critic Wendy Ide for The Times UK. "Michael Curtiz's film is a classic for a reason - it's crafted with the precision, detail and beauty of a Fabergé egg; the dialogue is hauntingly memorable and, in Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, it has one of the most magnetic screen pairings in history." The movie is endlessly watchable, wrote Sheila Johnston for the Daily Telegraph: "There are some of the very finest character actors that Warner Brothers could muster and a rich, detailed screenplay studded with an indecent number of sparklingly quotable lines. It is a movie to play again, and again." During World War II, French-occupied Morocco served as an escape route for refugees fleeing from Axis powers. Film critic Serena Donadoni, writing in The Village Voice, noted: "Casablanca was filmed in the safety of the Warner Bros. lot, but the cast of immigrants and exiles who had fled the Third Reich conveyed their visceral fear. While the future was uncertain, the resolute characters of this exquisite wartime drama found peace through love and resistance." Writing for Cinephilia Beyond, Sven Mikulec explored why Casablanca remains so revered: "The main reason why Casablanca still holds a place in film theory books, popular culture and oral tradition lies in its powerful storyline that easily gets through to people, featuring characters easy to relate to, dealing with a theme that has for centuries been the artists' inspiration for creating the best of stories: love and sacrifices we make for a greater cause. "Set in the backdrop of the Second World War, evoking the notions of honor, loyalty, friendship and duty, Casablanca is a classic which represents the very best the old Hollywood had to offer, and it's no surprise the film managed to stay afloat and still be celebrated three quarters of a century since the premiere." Why viewers say it's 'perfection' Casablanca has bagged an impressive 95% rating from Rotten Tomatoes audiences. One viewer called Margaret gushed: "Best movie ever made. I never miss the chance to see it on the Big Screen. Perfect cast. Perfect storyline. SUPERB ACTING. Some of the greatest lines in the history of the movies. Just perfection." Over on Letterboxd, punters have given the flick an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars. The most popular review on the platform, which has racked up over 10,400 likes, said: "I hate it when people say stuff like: 'You should watch this because it's a masterpiece!' Those people are annoying idiots. Also: You should watch this because it's a masterpiece!" One viewer humorously pointed out: "the two main men in this movie look exactly the same. she didn't really have to choose, could've just picked either one and used her imagination a bit". On IMDB, where it boasts an impressive 8.5 out of 10 rating, the top review hailed it as "One of the greatest", stating: "As innovative as Citizen Kane was, I'm gonna put this one ahead of it. But in one way this film beats all others - the dialogue. Yes, the cinematography is great, the acting is second to none, but how many eternal lines of dialogue came from this?" Play it, Sam.
