Cannes Market Head Talks Technology Push With New ‘Village Innovation', AI Summit & Immersive Market
The storm was downgraded to a squall after Corbet explained that his sound team had worked with Ukrainian AI voice company Respeecher to 'refine certain vowels and letter for accuracy' in the co-stars' Hungarian-language dialogue, while English-language dialogue had not been touched.
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Four months on, Respeecher CEO and co-founder Alex Serdiuk will be at the Cannes Marché du Film for a panel entitled 'AI Voices for Hollywood and Beyond', which will touch on the company's involvement in The Brutalist as well as Jacques Audiard's 2024 Cannes Jury Prize and Oscar winner Emilia Pérez.
The event is among a raft of technology and innovation-focused talks, panels and demonstrations scheduled to take place at the market's new Village Innovation, a 1,000 meter-square space in the Pantiero area overlooking the old port.
The village, which incorporates part of the market's long running Cannes Next program, has a focus on AI, virtual production and immersive content but touches on all aspects of technology that intersect with cinema.
'The village is part of our larger ambition to make Cannes a key innovation event, at the intersection of technology and the film industry,' says Cannes Market head Guillaume Esmiol. 'We're not looking to compete with tech events like CES or IBC. Our aim is rather to discuss how technology innovation can be at the service of creativity.'
Esmiol, who took over from long-time market head Jérôme Paillard in 2023, having begun his career in the digital domain at French TV network TF1, says the time is ripe for the market to move further into the technology space.
'The idea is to get all film professionals engaged with this topic,' he says. 'It's open to everyone, whether they have a market or a festival badge.'
He acknowledges that developments such as generative AI are a divisive issue in the film industry.
'It's not the market's role to take a position on whether technology is good or bad. Our role is to explain what's happening. With AI, whether you like it or not, you still have to understand what's happening,' he adds.
Other program highlights include an AI project pitching session overseen by the Sylvester Stallone-backed analytics platform Largo.ai; a workshop by A.J. Wedding and Brian Nitzkin at L.A-based virtual production specialist Orbital Studios (Snowfall, History's Greatest Heists) exploring Nvidia's Omniverse platform; a panel on how filmmakers can use generative AI without losing their voice, with speakers including Leonine co-founder and Oscar-winning producer Max Wiedemann, who is currently Head of AI at the Mediawan Group, and a case study with Paris-based VFX and animation company McGuff on the tools and techniques behind the Face Creative Engine used in Julia Ducournau's 2025 Palme d'Or contender Alpha.
A handful of Cannes Next discussions will take place outside of the Village Innovation, such as a conversation on the market's main stage between Japanese games creator and auteur Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear, Death Stranding) and German Turkish director Fatih Akin, who is in Cannes Official Selection with Amrum, on how technology has impacts their storytelling.
Roman Coppola and Leo Matchett will also be back at the market to discuss DCP+, the streaming platform launched last year by their Blockchain-based film funding platform Decentralized Pictures, which is a sister company to American Zentropa.
The market is also aiming to take the conversation around AI to another level with its inaugural one-day AI Summit on May 15. Previously announced guest Rob Bredow, SVP, Creative Innovation, Digital Production & Technology Lucasfilm & ILM, who was to due to give a keynote, can no longer make it to Cannes and new speakers are to due to be unveiled in the coming days (noted added May 8).
The Oscar-nominated visual effects veteran, whose credits include Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian and Aquaman, had recently given a Ted Talk championing ILM's creative legacy as well as future opportunities offered by AI.
The invite-only summit aims to gather decision-makers, technologists and creators for discussions around investment opportunities, strategic partnerships and the future of AI-driven innovation in cinema and entertainment.
'We're inviting 150 to 200 high profile guests,' says Esmiol. 'It's different from the events at the Village Innovation which is open to everyone… this is for people who are from the cinema industry, who are already working with technology. The aim is to lay on a high-level summit.'
Beyond AI and virtual production, the other key pole of the market's technology focus is immersive content, in conjunction with the festival's second Immersive Competition (a reboot of the Cannes XR Competition).
The 16-title 2025 selection includes Eloise Singer Trailblazer, about German automobile pioneer Bertha Benz, which is EP'ed and voiced by Daisy Ridley; Iranian artist Navid Khonsari's Lili, featuring Cannes Best Actress winner Zar Amir; Dutch immersive directors and producers Maartje Wegdam and Nienke Huitenga-Broeren's Lacuna, revisiting an octogenarian's World War Two memories, and The Exploding Girl, genre duo Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel's who were in Cannes Directors' Fortnight last year with feature Eat The Night.
After last year's out of town location, the works will be gathered in an exhibition at the Carlton Hotel. 'It generated around 3,000 sessions last year but the feedback we got was that it needed to be closer to the main festival,' says Esmiol.
Many of the contenders will be participating in a series of talks bannered Immersive Spotlights at the Village Innovation.
The market is also launching its inaugural Immersive Market, which will be situated on the Art Explora catamaran, and revolve around a seven-day Curators Network, aimed at connecting museum curators, cultural institutions, and themed entertainment venues with immersive works and creators.
'The competition is managed by the festival, but we are able to complement this work with the market,' says Esmiol. 'One of the biggest challenges for immersive works is their distribution… last year's competition attracted a lot of attention so this year we made a big effort to connect with curators who we thought could be interested in this sort of market.'
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