Culture
At Cannes, an AI Prize Circuit Is Running Without Pay Rates
A 12-minute AI-generated short won best film at a new Cannes festival last month. The models that generated it trained on creative work without attribution or payment.
Léo Cannone's "Costa Verde" won best film at the World AI Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes on April 22. The festival, now in its second year, required entries to incorporate at least three generative AI tools.
Claude Lelouch, serving as the festival's honorary president, said he was "turning to AI" after struggling to raise financing for his 52nd feature. Mathieu Kassovitz said AI could bring production costs from $50-60 million down to $25 million. The prize list discloses no financial compensation for winners; the award comes with development meetings and industry introductions.
The models that generated the winning films trained on existing creative work. Jean-Michel Jarre, speaking at the festival, called for artists to stop "being treated merely as data suppliers" and to be compensated as "business partners." No licensing structure governs the models the festival's entrants used.
The Academy moved on May 2 to require an Affidavit of Human Origin for any screenplay competing for an Oscar. Scripts "generated primarily by AI" are ineligible. The Academy has not published a percentage threshold or measurement standard; the rule relies on producer self-disclosure.
Four weeks earlier, the WGA ratified a deal that added $321 million to its health fund and raised studio contribution rates from 13% to 16.75%. On AI, the guild won notification rights, not payment. Studios must notify the WGA before licensing scripts to an outside AI company; in-house training on work-for-hire scripts owes the guild nothing.
The cost drop Kassovitz named (from $50-60 million to $25 million per feature) reveals where the savings are not going. Screenwriters whose archived work trained those models collect nothing under the WGA deal, and Lelouch's French production falls outside that contract entirely.
The Cannes 2026 competition opens May 13. Watch the production notes of any film that discloses AI use. The Academy's still-undefined "primarily by AI" threshold will then need a number, or a test case will supply one.