In November, a fledgling awards event that celebrates films made with artificial intelligence (AI) comes to London. The second edition of the AI Movie Awards (AIMA), which debuted in March in Spain, will recognize creations across a host of categories including feature films, short films, advertising clips and even music and art.
These awards are another in the growing number of events now recognizing films and photos generated using AI instead of with production crews, sets and actors. And, in one sense, I do believe that AI can be used creatively and that truly great AI creations are the result of a creative mind – not simply prompts and a click of a button.
But then, I remind myself that AI companies scrape copyrighted content – images, text and videos that an artist poured blood, sweat and tears into making – in order to sell subscription-based access to their tools without any sort of financial kickback to the creator whose work they’ve "borrowed".
I’d love to say "stolen", but this is such a legal grey area – with ongoing suits all over the world between AI platforms and publishers – that unfortunately, according to the law, I’m not even sure I can say that they’re stealing, even though it definitely feels this way.
Perhaps I’m succumbing to some sort of “AI overload.” You know, like when any other new, controversial thing is released and your resistance gradually turns to acceptance once you realize it’s here to stay.
And maybe it’s this that’s shifted my perspective on recognizing AI creations – and not that I actually think a movie generated purely with software deserves an award.
Or perhaps it’s that this new event in London is just one of many recent societal shifts toward accepting AI creations, even at the highest levels of cinema.
Take the AIMA 2026 judging panel, for instance. Sitting on this is Tommy Harper, a Hollywood and TV producer known for some pretty big titles, including the Star Trek reboot films.
And with Tribeca becoming the first ever film festival to recognize a fully AI-generated feature film this summer, these are people and institutions whose opinions on filmmaking carry weight – and I certainly think they’re worth considering.
However, I’m still unsure whether these awards should recognize creations brought about by the use of tools that, in part, run on copyrighted content.
I do think truly creative AI films and images can be recognized. But at the same time, I fear that it only helps legitimize the practice of using other people’s work without compensating them.
What are your thoughts?
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