Generative AI is being used everywhere, even in the movies as The Brutalist uses generative AI. But will doing so cost it at the Oscars?

As discussed in TechRadar (Oscars frontrunner The Brutalist uses generative AI, and it might cost it the Best Picture prize, written by John-Anthony Disotto and available here), The Brutalist, one of the Oscars frontrunners with nine BAFTA 2025 nominations, could have faltered its chance at the biggest prize of them all after the film’s editor revealed the use of generative AI to make the movie feel more authentic.

The movie, which is expected to earn many Academy Award nominations when they are revealed later this week, tells the story of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and moves across the Atlantic to chase the American Dream. Brody’s mother is Hungarian, while his father is of Polish Jewish descent, and the actor himself has spoken about how he sees his own immigrant grandparent’s struggles in the character he portrays. While Brody’s excellent performance is expected to receive a Best Actor nomination, having already won Best Actor in a Drama at the Golden Globes earlier this month, his performance and other aspects of The Brutalist are now coming under intense scrutiny.

Why?

Because The Brutalist’s editor Dávid Jancsó revealed that generative AI was used to improve Hungarian pronunciations as a large part of the movie’s dialogue is in Hungarian.

Jancsó said: “I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce. Even with Adrien’s Hungarian background it’s not that simple. It’s an extremely unique language. We coached [Brody and Felicity Jones] and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference.”

AI tool, Respeecher, was reportedly used to enhance the actors’ speech and “enhance specific letters of their vocal sounds”. Jancsó even fed the AI his own dialogue to help shape an authentic Hungarian dialect; “Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there. We were very careful about keeping their performances. 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 (production).”

The use of AI to enhance dialogue has been met by critique online, with one user on X accusing the film of “manipulating the actors’ accents, a fundamental aspect of… acting. This is a disgrace”.

Additionally, towards the end of the movie, there’s a sequence of scenes where AI has been used to create architectural drawings and buildings. Jancsó spoke on the matter, saying “it is controversial in the industry to talk about AI, but it shouldn’t be.”

The backlash from the editor’s openness to the use of generative AI could see Academy voters turn away from The Brutalist when Oscars voting begins, especially considering the ongoing fight for actors’ rights against artificial intelligence.

The “should generative AI be used to help make movies” discussion is very similar to discussions we’re having in the legal community about when it should be used and what the impact on jobs will be. In both instances, the argument is moot. Anytime in any industry that someone is able to figure out how to use technology (or any other tool) to do something faster, cheaper and/or better, it’s inevitable that they will use it. The better question to ask is “how should it be used”, not whether it should be used. Because it’s gonna be used.

Having said that, I could definitely see it impacting Oscar chances for the actors, given that their dialects were enhanced. I’ll bet they wish that Jancsó had waited until after awards season to be so “brutally” honest. 😉

So, what do you think? Do you think the fact that The Brutalist uses generative AI should cost it awards? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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