OpenAI Ventures into Feature-Length Animation with AI-Driven 'Critterz'

OpenAI Wants This Film to Prove AI Animation Is Ready for the Big Screen

Expertise Artificial intelligence, home energy, heating and cooling, home technology. Can generative AI animate a decent movie? That question's getting an early test. OpenAI and production studio Vertigo Films have announced a plan to create a feature-length adaptation of a 2023 short film made as a demonstration for OpenAI's Dall-E image generator. The film, called Critterz, has a budget of less than $30 million, and producers hope to make the movie in about nine months -- in time for the Cannes Film Festival next May, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. The short film, also called Critterz, was a play on the nature documentary genre, with the strange creatures in the forest suddenly showing they could understand and talk with the narrator. It was written and directed by Chad Nelson, now a creative specialist at OpenAI. Nelson used Dall-E to generate the images of the environment and the characters, tapping into traditional animation technique to bring the film to life. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Vertigo Films said the full movie will be a family adventure that will "expand the world of the so-called Critterz characters." James Lamont and Jon Foster, two of the writers behind the movie Paddington in Peru, will write the script. The Wall Street Journal reported that the film's production team plans to feed sketches from human artists hired for the project into AI tools to animate them. Nelson said on LinkedIn that the film would use the latest research models from OpenAI "to innovate new production workflows." Read more: AI Essentials: 29 Ways You Can Make Gen AI Work for You, According to Our Experts Image and video generators have come a long way just in the two years since the short film was made. Dall-E was impressive, but early image generators had notorious quirks, like giving people irregular numbers of fingers. Today's tools can render much more realistic-looking images and video. While they aren't perfect, tools like Google's Veo 3 are good enough that AI-created slop is overrunning social media feeds, and it's getting increasingly difficult to tell what video is real and what's fake. The bigger question isn't whether these tools can generate a film but rather whether they should -- and whether audiences will want to see it. The use of generative AI is controversial in the film industry and in creative fields more generally. There's also the issue of copyright, with OpenAI and other AI companies facing lawsuits from entertainment and media companies over the materials used to train their tools and the ability of some tools to generate things that look an awful lot like copyrighted characters.

OpenAI Is Using Its AI Tools to Make an Animated Movie

Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. OpenAI is using its generative AI tools to create a full-length animated film. The film, Critterz, is about forest creatures forced to move after a stranger disrupts their village, The Wall Street Journal reports. Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, borrows the characters from a short film of the same name he released in 2023. That film was funded by OpenAI and made using the company's own image generation tool DALL-E. The animated movie version of Critterz, though, is produced by London-based Vertigo Films and California-based Native Foreign. It is written by some writers who worked on the 2024 film Paddington in Peru. Together, they are making the film on a $30 million budget, which is a lot less than the usual budget for animated films. Inside Out 2, for example, reportedly cost $200 million. With the help of OpenAI's AI tools, including GPT-5 and other image generation models, the makers also expect to wrap up the film quickly -- nine months compared to the usual three-year cycle for animated films, the Journal notes. However, not every element of the film will be generated using AI. Human artists will provide the sketches to be fed into the AI tools and the voiceover for characters. Roughly 30 people will work on the film. Nelson and the other makers are hoping to debut Critterz at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026. If successful, the film will prove AI tools are cost-effective, time-saving, and ready to deliver on the big screen, Nelson says, adding that it could also speed Hollywood's adoption of AI. Netflix recently used AI tools to generate the collapse of a building in its Argentinian show The Eternaut. Avatar director James Cameron also believes AI could help double the "speed to completion on a given shot" and enable filmmakers to focus on cooler things. Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

OpenAI tech to be used to in a full-length animated film

OpenAI is throwing its resources behind a mostly AI-generated animated film that was the brainchild of one of the company's employees. As first reported by the , the film will be called Critterz and will follow forest creatures who go on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger. Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, started designing the characters three years ago with the intention of making a short film using OpenAI's . The goal of the film is, in part, to show that animated films can be made for less money and in less time with AI. The team behind the film has set a budget of less than $30 million and a production schedule of only nine months. Both are a fraction of what it takes to produce a typical Hollywood animated picture. According to Nelson, OpenAI is hoping that if Critterz is successful, it might pave the way for adoption of more AI in the industry. London-based Vertigo Films will produce the film along with Native Foreign, a studio in Los Angeles that specializes in using AI alongside more traditional video production methods. Native Foreign previously produced a faux Planet Earth-style , also titled Critterz, written and directed by Nelson. It used DALL-E to create all the visuals for the short, which Native Foreign then brought to life with (limited) animation. The production team will hire human voice actors for the film's characters and will hire artists to draw sketches that will then be fed into OpenAI's chat and . The script for Critterz was penned by some of the same writers behind Paddington in Peru. The team aims to premiere the film at next year's Cannes Film Festival in May. Over the last few years, many Hollywood workers have fought to protect their livelihoods against AI encroachment. In 2023, after a protracted strike, SAG-AFTRA that would require "informed consent and compensation" should a studio wish to use AI-generated likenesses of any current or deceased SAG-AFTRA members. All of this comes against the backdrop of enormous by creatives alike.

OpenAI Is Bringing an AI-Driven Feature-Length Animated Movie to Cannes

It's called 'Critterz,' will cost less than $30 million, and will apparently be done in nine months. You knew it was bound to happen, and now, it has. The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI is lending its services to the production of a feature-length animated film called Critterz, which is aiming to be done in time for next year's Cannes Film Festival. That would put its production time at nine months, which is unheard of for a feature-length animated film, but that's because it'll be created using AI. According to the paper, using OpenAI's resources, production companies Vertigo Films and Native Foreign will hire actors to voice characters created by feeding original drawings into generative AI software. The entire film is expected to cost less than $30 million and will only take about 30 people to complete. The driving force behind that is a man named Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI. A few years back, he was sketching characters with the intent to make a short film with the DALL-E image generator. Which he did and you can watch it here. Based on that, he was then hired by OpenAI and has since decided to think bigger. “OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it’s much more impactful if someone does it,†Nelson told the WSJ. “That’s a much better case study than me building a demo.†The film "reflects the kind of creativity and exploration we love to encourage," a spokesperson for OpenAI told the paper. The film reportedly has a script from some of the team behind the recent Paddington in Peru, which makes it sound like AI will primarily be used to streamline the animation process. That will, in turn, make producing the movie so much cheaper because the programs are doing the detailed, artful, but often tedious and time-consuming work of human animators. That's a bad thing for human animators, but, hypothetically, a good thing for the production companies if the result is a $30 million animated film that can be released in theaters in under a year and make money. Clearly, this is a slippery slope. And there's no guarantee that a) it'll work, or b) if it does, anyone will come out to see it. It could just end up being a $30 million waste of time. But, you have to imagine that's probably more attractive to a film company than spending three times the time and maybe 10 times the money on something that fails in the same way.

OpenAI is Developing a Feature-Length Animated Movie Using AI Technology

OpenAI plans to produce a feature-length animated film using AI technology, in roughly a quarter of the time normally required for a project of this scale. The film, titled Critterz, is scheduled for a worldwide theatrical release in 2026 following a planned premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, according to The Wall Street Journal. It will be created largely with OpenAI's own technology, including GPT-5. Critterz follows a group of forest animals who set out on an adventure after a newcomer disrupts their village. The project originated with Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who began designing the characters three years ago while experimenting with the company's early DALL-E image generator for a short film idea. Nelson is now collaborating with Vertigo Films in London and Los Angeles-based Native Foreign to produce the feature. Human actors will provide the voices, while artists will create sketches that will be processed through OpenAI tools such as GPT-5 and image models. Native Foreign specializes in combining AI with traditional production techniques. The film is being made for under $30 million and on a nine-month timeline, compared with the typical three years required for an animated feature. The budget is also far less than what animated films typically cost, according to the report by The Wall Street Journal. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson said. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." OpenAI hopes the project will demonstrate AI's capabilities to Hollywood, where adoption has been slow and concerns remain over intellectual property and creative control. In recent months, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. have sued AI company Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement in cases that could influence future industry rules. Separately, Amazon announced plans to use AI to reconstruct missing footage from Orson Welles' 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons, which was shortened by 43 minutes before release. However, according to Variety, Welles' estate has objected, stating it was not informed of Amazon's plans and emphasizing that it retains authority over the use of AI in licensing a voice model of Welles for commercial purposes.

This new OpenAI-backed movie has a budget of just $30 million, but will it prove AI can make movies Hollywood can't?

The movie with a $30 million budget is expected to debut at Cannes Film Festival in 2026 A new animated feature-length movie, Critterz, is being produced with the help of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and it could debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2026. Critterz, a story about forest creatures who go on an adventure following a disruption in their village, was originally created as a short film using OpenAI's DALL-E back in 2023. Now, the creator, Chad Nelson, who is a creative specialist at OpenAI, has teamed up with Vertigo Films and the writers of Paddington in Peru to create a full-length version on a shoestring $30 million budget. $30 million might sound like a huge amount of money, but compared to other feature-length animated movies like the latest Pixar movie, Elio, which has a reported $200 million budget, it's barely a scratch. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Vertigo Films is "attempting to make the movie in about nine months instead of the three years it would typically take." This is possible thanks to AI and Native Foreign, "a studio that specializes in using AI along with traditional video-production tools." The film won't be fully AI-generated, however. Critterz will have human voice actors, original artwork from artists that will then be fed into GPT-5 and other AI image generation tools, and an original script. The plan for the movie is to showcase the power of OpenAI's tools and prove that AI can have a positive impact on the film industry. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson told WSJ, "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." An OpenAI spokesperson told WSJ that Critterz "reflects the kind of creativity and exploration we love to encourage." And the company will hope that the movie showcases the capabilities of creativity through AI, rather than damaging the technology's reputation in the industry through bad PR. The original Critterz short film has a measly 3.2/10 on IMDB from 13 ratings, which shows not only the lack of interest in the original source material but also the lack of acclaim from those who did watch the short. Critterz won't be the first feature-length AI movie to grace our screens, but it is the first with such a huge budget, albeit small compared to other animated movies. With the backing of the world's most renowned AI company, Critterz could succeed where other media have yet to do so by emphasizing the ability of AI to foster creativity. That said, we'll need to wait until next year to find out if Critterz can really cause a disruption in the animation industry run by juggernauts like Disney and Dreamworks.

OpenAI-backed, AI-created movie 'Critterz' looks to debut at Cannes

It's getting more and more difficult to navigate an internet ecosystem rife with AI-generated video -- much of it slop -- designed to flood the ephemeral attention marketplace online. Good news movie buffs: That experience could soon come to a theater near you! The Wall Street Journal published an exclusive report on a project called Critterz that is backed by OpenAI and will look to make a feature-length movie largely created via generative artificial intelligence. The movie centers on woodland creatures going on an adventure. The exact process of how the movie will be made wasn't made totally clear. The report from the WSJ suggested the script was human-written and that human artists would feed images into AI tools to generate footage. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The selling point of Critterz, at least as it seems in the WSJ article, was lowered costs and a faster turnaround. That is, by and large, the selling point for a lot of AI-generated "art" -- you can get cheap output quickly. After all, human workers have a pesky habit of requiring money to purchase things such as food and shelter. While certainly an impressive technology, AI video in commercial settings has, at times, proven odd or uncanny-valley-esque. But it is cheap and quick. Forget a resonant message on the human experience, isn't maximized profitability what we all want out of our films? In all seriousness, AI certainly threatens to upend the movie industry. Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Universal have all sued AI video generation tool Midjourney for copyright infringement, for instance. An Amazon-backed AI firm recently announced plans to recreate the lost minutes of an Orson Welles film, much to the chagrin of the great director's estate. But OpenAI's Critterz is certainly the most ambitious, brazen even, attempt at replacing human filmmaking with AI to date. The WSJ reported the team hopes for the film to debut at Cannes Film Festival in May. We'll have a better look at the future of movies -- for better or worse -- in just a few short months.

OpenAI lends tools for new AI animated feature called Critterz

The budget is relatively small and it'll be quick to make. But will it be any good? We're already seeing how generative-AI tools are able to create moving images from text prompts, and now OpenAI wants to prove that such technology can create Hollywood-worthy animated feature films. The company behind ChatGPT and the text-to-video generation tool Sora has partnered with a couple of production companies to make a movie called Critterz that it plans to debut at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May ahead of a global theater release, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Recommended Videos The movie, which according to the Journal is about "forest creatures who go on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger," will be "largely" made using OpenAI tools. The idea for Critterz came from Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI. Working with London-based Vertigo Films and Los Angeles-based Native Foreign, the plan is to make the animation in nine months -- less than a third of the time it would usually take using regular production methods. And with a reported budget of less than $30 million, the cost of making the movie will be significantly lower than that of other animations using traditional techniques. Notably, the script for Critterz was written by humans and not AI, with some of those who penned Paddington in Peru part of the team. Human artists, too, have been hired to draw sketches that OpenAI's tools will then work with, and human voice actors -- not AI-generated imitations -- will be given roles in the movie. However, compared to a regular animation feature, the crew is tiny, with only "roughly 30 people" working on Critterz. The news of OpenAI's bid to create an animated feature film comes as the entertainment industry grapples with questions about how far to deploy AI technology in the movie-making process. While many creatives see AI as a serious threat to their livelihoods, major companies remain eager to experiment with the technology in the hope of boosting their business. As for Critterz, if it's a big success, the movie could trigger a shift in Hollywood and the wider film industry toward greater use of AI for the production of animated features.

OpenAI backs AI-animated film for Cannes debut

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is backing the production of a feature-length animated film created largely with artificial intelligence tools, aiming to prove the technology can revolutionize Hollywood filmmaking with faster timelines and lower costs. The movie, titled "Critterz," follows woodland creatures on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger, with producers hoping to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 before a global theatrical release, they said in statement on Monday. The project has a budget of under $30 million and a production timeline of just nine months -- a fraction of the typical $100-200 million cost and three-year development cycle for major animated features. "Critterz" originated as a short film by Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who began developing the concept three years ago using the company's DALL-E image generation tool. Nelson has partnered with London-based Vertigo Films and Los Angeles studio Native Foreign to expand the project into a full-length feature. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson said in the news release. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." The production will blend AI technology with human work. Artists will draw sketches that are fed into OpenAI's tools, including GPT-5 and image-generating models, while human actors will voice the characters. The script was written by some of the same writers behind the successful "Paddington in Peru." However the project comes amid intense legal battles between Hollywood studios and AI companies over intellectual property rights. Major studios including Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against AI firm Midjourney, alleging the company illegally trained its models on their characters. The film is funded by Vertigo's Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios, with about 30 contributors sharing profits through a specialized compensation model. Critterz will not be the first animated feature film made with generative AI. In 2024, "DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict," considered the first AI animated feature film and made with a budget of $405, was released, as well as "Where the Robots Grow." Those releases, as well as the original "Critterz" short film, received mixed reactions from viewers, with some critics questioning whether current AI technology can produce cinema-quality content that resonates emotionally with audiences.

OpenAI Says It's Making a Full Hollywood Movie Using AI

OpenAI has teamed up with production companies in London and Los Angeles to create a feature-length animated movie made largely with artificial intelligence. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the purported goal of using AI tech on the movie is to speed up production while also saving costs -- and, presumably, serving as a giant tech demo for movie execs everywhere. The film will invite comparisons to the early days of CGI-animated movies in the mid-1990s. Funded heavily by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the era's animation studio Pixar quickly turned into a powerhouse, producing a litany of critically acclaimed and commercially successful feature films including "Toy Story" and "Monsters Inc." But whether generative AI will represent yet another major revolution in the space -- let alone save production companies time and money -- remains to be seen, especially considering that plenty of technical quirks have yet to be ironed out, often requiring the intervention of human creatives to fix the flawed outputs. The film, dubbed "Critterz," is reportedly about forest creatures going on an adventure, and was first dreamed up by OpenAI creative specialist Chad Nelson three years ago. Nelson created a short film of the same name, which was released in 2023 with OpenAI funding. The news comes as the adoption of generative AI -- with varying degrees of success -- is hitting a fever pitch in Hollywood. Major entertainment companies, including Disney and Netflix, are already experimenting with the tech. The push could have devastating consequences for working creatives. Experts have long warned that the tech could wipe out human jobs in the animation industry, especially as tools like image and video generators are becoming increasingly capable of spitting out believable materials. James Richardson, co-founder of London-based Vertigo Films, which is working with OpenAI on the film, told the WSJ that the goal is to cut the production time of Nelson's vision for "Critterz" from three years to just nine months. The budget of the feature is less than $30 million, which is substantially less than other animated films. In light of widespread fears of human animators losing their jobs, Nelson assured the WSJ that the movie wouldn't rely on AI entirely. Human actors will still lend the movie's characters their voices. Human artists will also feed their sketches into OpenAI's tools. But whether "Critterz" will be a success is far from guaranteed. Especially considering the widespread blowback companies have already received for using AI, audiences have clearly grown wary of the tech. Interestingly, while AI-generated content can't technically be copyrighted, the human-created voices of characters and original artwork they were based on could still make them eligible for copyright protection, experts told the WSJ. The subject has become a major point of contention, with rightsholders suing OpenAI and other AI companies for allowing their tools to generate images and clips of copyrighted characters. Just last week, AI startup Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion as part of a class action settlement after being caught training its AI models on hundreds of thousands of pirated books.

OpenAI is backing a new animated feature film 'made largely with AI' to prove it can make films 'faster and cheaper' than Hollywood

The AI firm hopes that if Critterz is a hit, it will speed up Hollywood's embrace of AI technology. A Wall Street Journal report says OpenAI is backing the creation of a new animated film called Critterz that will be made "largely" with AI, in hopes of convincing Hollywood that it's time to go all-in on AI content creation tools. Called Critterz, the film follows forest creatures who embark on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger -- a fairly generic setup for a Pixar-esque tale of talking wildlife where it doesn't belong. But the real purpose of the project, according to a press release from production company Vertigo Films, is "to prove that generative artificial intelligence can make movies faster and cheaper than Hollywood does today." Critterz has a budget of less than $30 million, far below what animated films like this typically cost -- Toy Story 4, released in 2019, had a budget of approximately $200 million -- and is expected to take only about nine months to make. Critterz was initially conceived by Chad Nelson, a "creative specialist" at OpenAI, and made its debut in a 2023 animated film based on images -- "every character, every background... basically the entire Crittzer world" -- generated by OpenAI's Dall.E image generation tool, which were "handed to a talented team of Emmy award-winning animators in order to bring it all to life!" The Critterz feature film aims to sort of flip that script by hiring artists to draw sketches that will be fed into OpenAI's tools. Human actors will also be hired to provide voices for the characters, and the script was written by some of the team behind the 2024 film Paddington in Peru. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson said. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." The presence of humans in the production is expected to serve a purpose beyond merely ensuring that the film isn't complete gibberish: Nik Kleverov, co-founder of production company Native Foreign and a co-creator of Critterz, said AI-generated content can't be copyrighted, but the use of humans to create the images and voices the film's creatures will be based on should make it eligible for copyright protections. OpenAI isn't playing a direct role in the production of the film -- for now, it's just "lending its tools and computing resources" to the project -- and it's reportedly undecided at this point whether it will play any sort of role in marketing. But while "a box office release of an original animated film is a risky bet," the potential payoff, separate from whatever money it makes, is significant: If Critterz is a success, "it will show that AI can deliver content strong enough for the big screen and accelerate Hollywood's adoption of the technology," while lowering the cost of productions and "allowing more people to make creative content." That presumably excludes the artists and animators who make creative content now, but will be pushed out of work by C-suite types who think that slop spewed out by content recycling machines is good enough as long as it saves a buck.

OpenAI backs AI-animated film for Cannes debut

New York (AFP) - ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is backing the production of a feature-length animated film created largely with artificial intelligence tools, aiming to prove the technology can revolutionize Hollywood filmmaking with faster timelines and lower costs. The movie, titled "Critterz," follows woodland creatures on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger, with producers hoping to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 before a global theatrical release, they said in statement on Monday. The project has a budget of under $30 million and a production timeline of just nine months -- a fraction of the typical $100-200 million cost and three-year development cycle for major animated features. "Critterz" originated as a short film by Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who began developing the concept three years ago using the company's DALL-E image generation tool. Nelson has partnered with London-based Vertigo Films and Los Angeles studio Native Foreign to expand the project into a full-length feature. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson said in the news release. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." The production will blend AI technology with human work. Artists will draw sketches that are fed into OpenAI's tools, including GPT-5 and image-generating models, while human actors will voice the characters. The script was written by some of the same writers behind the successful "Paddington in Peru." However the project comes amid intense legal battles between Hollywood studios and AI companies over intellectual property rights. Major studios including Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against AI firm Midjourney, alleging the company illegally trained its models on their characters. The film is funded by Vertigo's Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios, with about 30 contributors sharing profits through a specialized compensation model. Critterz will not be the first animated feature film made with generative AI. In 2024, "DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict," considered the first AI animated feature film and made with a budget of $405, was released, as well as "Where the Robots Grow." Those releases, as well as the original "Critterz" short film, received mixed reactions from viewers, with some critics questioning whether current AI technology can produce cinema-quality content that resonates emotionally with audiences.

OpenAI Backs $30 Million AI Animated Film for Cannes Debut | AIM

The film will make use of OpenAI's latest models, including GPT-5 and advanced image generators. OpenAI has announced its backing for a feature-length animated film that will be created primarily with artificial intelligence (AI) tools, aiming to showcase how AI can reshape Hollywood with shorter timelines and lower costs. Titled 'Critterz', the movie follows woodland creatures embarking on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger. Producers plan to premiere it at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026, followed by a worldwide theatrical release. Artists will sketch characters and scenes, which will then be processed through OpenAI's latest models, including GPT-5 and advanced image generators. Human actors will provide voices for the characters, blending traditional performance with AI-driven visuals. With a budget of under $30 million and a production

New animated feature film to be produced using OpenAI's AI models - SiliconANGLE

New animated feature film to be produced using OpenAI's AI models Two film studios will use GPT-5 and other OpenAI models to produce an animated movie, the Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday. The picture, "Critterz", is set to debut next May at the Cannes Film Festival. Production has reportedly already begun. The film is a collaboration between London-based Vertigo Films and Culver City, Calif.-based Native Foreign. The companies will hire artists to draw the sketches that are set to form the basis of the movie. According to the Journal, those sketches will be turned into scenes using multiple OpenAI models including GPT-5 and unspecified image generation algorithms. GPT-5 is the artificial intelligence system that powers ChatGPT. It comprises several large language models that can generate text and analyze information in images. ChatGPT's image generation feature is powered by a different AI model, gpt-image-1, that OpenAI debuted in April. It's unclear whether the film crew will also use the AI provider's Sora video generation model. Launched earlier this year, Sora is capable of generating clips up to one minute in length. The version that OpenAI offers to customers can only output videos up to 20 seconds in length. Sora can't generate a full-length movie on its own, but it could potentially lend itself to previsualization. This is a stage of the film production workflow in which artists create a simple animated representation of a scene. The director can use the sequence to plan details such as the camera angle. In theory, the film crew could also use Sora to generate complete scenes. Manually polishing and then stitching together 20-second clips may be faster than producing everything from scratch. However, it's unclear whether Sora can make the individual scenes it generates sufficiently consistent with one another for that approach to work. According to the Journal, the film studios behind the project plan to start casting voice actors in the coming weeks. The project has a budget of under $30 million, a fraction of what feature-length animated movies usually cost to produce. The film crew hopes to complete the movie in nine months instead of the several years that would normally be required. If the project is successful, it could help Sora gain traction among media and entertainment companies. A few months ago, OpenAI screened several Sora-generated short films in a Los Angeles theater to showcase the model's capabilities. It earlier held a similar event in New York and reportedly plans to host another in Tokyo down the road.

OpenAI backs AI animated film, Critterz, for 2026 release

OpenAI is backing the creation of an AI-assisted animated feature film called Critterz, a project designed to test how generative AI can be used to make films faster and with lower costs than traditional animation methods. Critterz tells the story of forest creatures whose lives are disrupted by a mysterious stranger, leading them into an unexpected adventure. Initially planned as a short film, the project expanded into a full-length feature with support from OpenAI and production companies Vertigo Films and Native Foreign. The film is expected to reach theaters worldwide in 2026. OpenAI is providing its tools and computing resources to help with the film's production. One of these tools, Sora, generates video content from text prompts, allowing the team to visualize scenes quickly and experiment with ideas. The goal is to see how AI can assist animators and filmmakers in completing work more efficiently, without replacing the creative decisions made by humans. The film is being produced on a timeline of nine months, significantly shorter than the usual three years for a traditional animated feature. The budget is under $30 million, demonstrating how AI tools can reduce costs while keeping production on track. The project has drawn attention within the animation and film industry. Some see it as a way to speed up production and explore new workflows, while others raise questions about how AI might affect roles in animation and issues like intellectual property. Critterz provides a practical example of how AI can be integrated into the filmmaking process, showing both potential benefits and limitations. As Critterz moves toward its 2026 release, it will offer a clear test case for the use of AI in feature film production. The outcome could influence how studios approach animation and the tools they use, highlighting the balance between technology and human creative input.

An AI-Made Animated Feature Film Backed By OpenAI Is Premiering Next Year

The film is expected to be more time- and cost-effective to make than a traditional animated movie. A new animated movie made mainly with AI could challenge the time and resources it takes to put together a Hollywood production. According to a Sunday report from The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is giving its tools and computing resources to a new feature-length movie called "Critterz," which follows the journey of forest creatures who embark on a quest after a stranger intrudes on their home. Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, conceptualized "Critterz" three years ago while experimenting with OpenAI's image generation tool Dall-E. It was originally a short film funded by OpenAI that was released in 2023. Nelson has since joined forces with movie production companies in London and Los Angeles to make his vision of a feature film a reality. It's unclear if OpenAI will be marketing the full-length movie. Related: Meta Says Its New Movie Gen AI Is an Industry First -- But a Demo Shows It Isn't Perfect Nelson says that the film will demonstrate what OpenAI's tools can do, creating a highly visible (the plan is to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May) use case for the technology. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson told WSJ. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." After being introduced at Cannes, "Critterz" is expected to be released in theaters globally next year. In a press release on Monday, Vertigo Films said the film will be funded by Vertigo's Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios. With a budget of less than $30 million, the movie would cost less to make than a standard Hollywood film. For reference, major Hollywood productions like Disney's "Tangled" cost over $200 million to create, while the studio's "Tarzan" cost $130 million. If successful, it could cause Hollywood to take notice and use AI for future films. Related: A Movie About Sam Altman's Ouster and Wild Week at OpenAI Is Currently Filming. Here's Who's Portraying the Tech CEO (and His Nemesis, Elon Musk). "Critterz" would also take less time to produce: The production team is aiming to create it in nine months instead of the standard three to four years. Production has started, with casting decisions aiming to go out within the next few weeks. Other Hollywood studios have already begun experimenting with AI. In July, Netflix disclosed that it had used AI to generate a scene on an Argentine TV show called "El Eternauta." Meanwhile, Disney has experimented with tapping into AI to create clones or digital body doubles of actors. Entertainment companies have also pushed back against unauthorized AI use. In June, Disney and Universal filed the first major Hollywood lawsuit against AI startup Midjourney, alleging that the startup copied its characters from copyrighted works without permission.

An almost entirely AI-generated animated movie is in the works, and it's aiming to debut at Cannes next year

A mostly AI-generated film is in the works, and it has the aim of debuting at Cannes next year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Critterz, which will be "made largely with AI," is anticipating a global 2026 theatrical release. The movie hails from OpenAI creative specialist Chad Nelson, and it will be made with OpenAI tools like image-generating models and GPT-5. The movie is said to be about forest creatures who set off on an adventure following a stranger disrupting their village. It was originally a short film made in 2023 by Nelson and Native Foreign co-founder Nik Kleverov. You can watch the short online. Human actors and artists will be involved with production as voice actors and to draw sketches that will be input into OpenAI's tools. Some of the writers involved with Paddington 3 are on board, though the article doesn't specify which. Critterz's budget is $30 million, and it's aiming to be completed in around nine months. Vertigo Films and Native Foreign are producing. Federation Studios, Vertigo's parent company, is funding the project. AI is a controversial topic in filmmaking. While Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos recently called it an "incredible opportunity," Disney and Universal have branded AI a "bottomless pit of plagiarism" in a lawsuit against AI company Midjourney. It was also a key concern in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA actors' strikes and WGA writers' strikes.

OpenAI announces AI-generated animated movie called Critterz

The script and voice-acting will still be done by people, but GPT 5 will be using art alongside other image models to make the visuals. Here we go, folks. The talk of Hollywood being "dead" is stepping off one or two-minute clips on Twitter and into cinemas, as OpenAI has announced it is helping with the creation of an AI-generated movie called Critterz. As per The Wall Street Journal, Critterz is a chance for OpenAI to prove it can use its tech to make movies faster and cheaper than traditional Hollywood productions. The film is aiming to finish production in nine months and debut at Cannes. Its script is written by the people behind Paddington in Peru, voice actors are being cast, and so the only thing that seems to be fully AI is the visuals, which will come from art being fed into Chat GPT 5 and other image models. With art being taken, you do wonder about whether this will open another can of copyright worms for the AI model owners, but if it proves to be a hit, we're sure more movies like Critterz will head our way. With a budget of only $30 million, this film is ten times cheaper than some major Hollywood blockbusters, and yet we'll have to wait and see whether AI is really at a point where it can create a compelling feature film.

AI Vs. Hollywood Battle Heats Up: OpenAI Financing AI-Made Animated Film - Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)

Leading generative AI company OpenAI is ready to prove to Hollywood that it can cut costs and time by using artificial intelligence to make movies. NFLX is trading up on Monday. Get the inside scoop here. What Happened: Use cases for artificial intelligence continue to rise and the technology could be used to transform the movie industry, something that could put actors and movie makers at odds with AI technology. To help illustrate the use case for generative AI in the movie-making experience, OpenAI is backing animated film "Critterz" from a creative specialist at the company, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Chad Nelson has been working on the characters for the film for three years, using tools from OpenAI such as the DALL-E image-generation tool. Nelson teamed up with production companies Vertigo Films and Native Foreign. Vertigo Films co-founder James Richardson said the companies are attempting to make the animated film in nine months instead of the typical three years for a similar film. "It's a very ambitious massive experiment," Richardson said. The goal is to have "Critterz" debut at the Cannes Film Festival, set for May 12 through May 23 next year. "Critterz" was originally created as a short-form film, making its debut in 2023 with funding from OpenAI. With a budget of under $30 million, the film is also trying to demonstrate how generative AI tools can help make movies more cost-friendly for studios and independent filmmakers. The report said OpenAI is backing the film by providing tools and resources. No financial terms were disclosed. Nelson and the producers plan on casting actors to voice the film's characters and to hire artists to help provide the sketches used by OpenAI's tools. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson said. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." Read Also: Meme Stock Meets AI: How AMC Could Help Moviegoers Never See Subtitles Again Why It's Important: News of the OpenAI-backed film comes as movie studios and streaming companies wrestle with how much AI they want to use, fearing backlash from people in the Hollywood industry and consumers. In June, the Walt Disney Co DIS and Comcast Corporation CMCSA-owned Universal brand sued Midjourney, an AI image-generating company, for copyright infringement. Warner Bros. Discovery WBD has since filed a similar suit against the AI company. Netflix Inc NFLX is using video tools from Runway AI to accelerate production on at least one film. Disney was also said to be testing technology from Runway AI. Hollywood strikes from the SAG-AFTRA previously included complaints about studios turning to AI to replace human actors in voice roles and for eliminating positions in the filmmaking process. If "Critterz" is successful, it could upend the movie industry as it would demonstrate the ability to shorten the filmmaking process and lower costs by using AI tools. The big question is whether it will eliminate jobs along the way. Nelson argues that OpenAI's lower costs could lead to the hiring of more people to work on films, but that will remain to be seen. OpenAI told the Wall Street Journal that the "Critterz" movie "reflects the kind of creativity and exploration we love to encourage." The film could be a test for movie companies, movie theaters and the AI sector going forward. Read Next: Top Anticipated 2025 Movies For Big Screen Success And Stocks Investors Should Watch Photo: Gorodenkoff via Shutterstock NFLXNetflix Inc$1246.240.19%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentum89.63Growth84.64Quality83.02Value9.94Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewCMCSAComcast Corp$33.90-0.03%DISThe Walt Disney Co$118.800.75%NFXLDirexion Daily NFLX Bull 2X Shares$61.550.42%WBDWarner Bros. Discovery Inc$12.392.31%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI's AI-Animated Feature Critterz Aims For Cannes 2026, Blending GPT-5, DALL-E, And Human Creativity To Shake Up Hollywood

OpenAI is looking aggressively into establishing itself in varied domains and leveraging its technology to extensively spread out its products and services. The tech giant is now making headlines for its bold experiment in the entertainment category with its feature-length AI-generated animated film called Critterz and its attempt to reshape how producers view filmmaking in Hollywood. AI tools such as GPT-5 and DALL-E are said to be used, and the project is led by the company's creative specialist, Chad Nelson. The production will be made with Vertigo Films in London and Native Foreign in Los Angeles and is expected to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by a worldwide release in 2026. OpenAI is determined to challenge itself and explore new categories it can be a part of. The AI company is now venturing into animated filmmaking with the film Critterz, which is going to be largely powered by AI tools, as per the Wall Street Journal. What makes this move by the company striking is not only the AI-animated feature itself but also the impressive budget that was used to make the film, which is under $30 million. The film is also set to be completed in nine months, which is impressive given how movies can typically take years to finish. If OpenAI is able to deliver on the timeline within the given cost, then this would mark a major leap in efficiency with the help of AI when it comes to the entertainment industry. It is important to clarify that the project will not be completely AI-driven and will have the human element at its core, as voice actors will be playing their part in voicing the characters, and artists will be sketching the environments and characters. Critterz seems like a project meant to experiment in combining originality and technology so that there are no issues related to copyright infringement. The movie does sound ambitious, given its potential to redefine filmmaking. The success and impact of the movie will completely depend on the reaction of the audience and the response from the industry. Given how, in the past, AI taking over and undermining human creativity has been a point of concern, Critterz by OpenAI could either help show how AI can support human talent or fuel existing fears.

OpenAI Aims to Take AI-Made Film to Cannes | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The artificial intelligence (AI) startup is lending its resources to help create a feature-length animated film made largely with AI that is expected to be released next year, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday (Sept. 8). The movie is called "Critterz," an adventure featuring a cast of woodland creatures, and comes from Chad Nelson, an OpenAI creative specialist. He began developing the idea three years ago when attempting to make a short film using what was then OpenAI's new DALL-E image-generation tool, and is now hoping to show a feature-length version of the film at the Cannes Film Festival next year. "Critterz," the WSJ added, has a budget of under $30 million, much lower than what an animated film would usually cost. The production plans to cast human actors to voice the characters and employ artists to draw sketches that are fed into OpenAI's tools, such as GPT-5 and image-generating models. "OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson said. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo." A recent report by Rolling Stone on the use of AI in moviemaking said the market for artificial intelligence tools in film is projected to jump tenfold by 2023, amid an ongoing debate about the technology. "Felix Dobaire, a film director and critic, argues that films generated entirely by AI seem empty, and cinema needs human vision," that report said. "Another film critic, Lukasz Mankowski, sees a threat to creativity for filmmakers if they stop challenging themselves and use AI as a shortcut. On the other hand, AI has the potential to simplify repetitive and tedious filmmaking tasks, enhancing artistic work." At the same time, the WSJ notes, there's a lot of uneasiness in the film industry about outright embracing AI, out of fears of upsetting actors and writers, whose unions have fought for safeguards against AI tools. There's also the issue of entertainment companies seeking to protect copyrighted characters and works. Disney, Universal and Warner Bros Discovery have all sued AI provider Midjourney, alleging that the company had made copies of their copyrighted properties. Midjourney has disputed those claims in legal filings.

Will OpenAI's Critterz make or break AI filmmaking?

You may have missed the AI movie Critterz when it appeared as a short animation a couple of years ago. It didn't exactly set the world on fire, with comments on YouTube including "I'd call this garbage, but that'd be an insult to garbage" and "This was the worst 5 minutes I will never get back". Nevertheless, it seems OpenAI, the maker of Chat GPT, saw potential in the 'nature documentary turned comedy'. It's putting its name behind the experimental short's expansion into a feature-length movie intended for a debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 followed by a full cinema release. Will it show that AI is ready to take on Hollywood and slash the costs of filmmaking, or will it do the opposite like 'Netflix of AI' Showrunner? The original short Critterz film (above) was made by a company called Native Foreign using OpenAI's Dall.E to design the visuals, including characters and backgrounds, which were then "handed to a talented team of Emmy award-winning animators". It was an attempt at spoofing a David Attenborough documentary, but the jokes weren't funny and it felt more like a tech demo than a piece of art. It also fell into generative AI's most tired genre: surreal creatures, which was revived yet again when LucasFilm stunned a Ted Talks audience with a cringeworthy AI Star Wars movie back in May. California-based Native Foreign has now brought in the British production company Vertigo Films to work on the full movie, which is being funded by Vertigo's Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios. The screenplay was written by Paddington In Peru writers James Lamont and Jon Foster. Human actors will be cast for the character voices and artists will be hired to draw sketches as references to be used by OpenAI's generative AI tools like GPT-5. According to the Wall Street Journal, the film will take nine months to make on a budget of under $30 million. That's small change compared to Pixar movies, which can have budgets of around $200 million, or even the surprise Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters, which is estimated to have cost $100 million. But it's not exactly cheap for something made with AI. There are genuine animated movies that have been made for less. Opting for a cinema release will make Critterz a big test for AI-driven filmmaking. If it were released for free on a streaming platform, people might watch it out of curiosity, but people may be less likely to want to pay to see an AI-generated movie at a cinema. And even for Hollywood execs, 'cheap' is only good if it makes money. It could also test the potential Achilles' heel of commercial AI-generated art. Blockbuster animations from the likes of Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks generate a lot of money from merchandise. But courts have so far ruled that AI art can't be copyrighted. The studios are hoping that the use of actors to voice the characters and artists to draw reference sketches will provide some protection for the IP. Otherwise it would be fair game for anyone to make toys, posters and other merch in the unlikely event that Critterz becomes a hit.

OpenAI and AI filmmaking: Why Critterz could change animation forever

Faster, cheaper animation emerges as Critterz demonstrates generative AI's cinematic potential worldwide For decades, animation has been one of the most labor-intensive art forms in entertainment. Studios like Pixar and DreamWorks often spend years - sometimes close to a decade - perfecting every detail of their films, from storyboarding and character design to the complex rendering pipelines that bring digital worlds to life. But what happens when artificial intelligence can shorten that process from years to months? That's exactly the question being tested with Critterz, the first AI-assisted animated feature film backed by OpenAI. Also read: Netflix and Disney explore using Runway AI: How it changes film production Critterz is not just another animated movie about quirky woodland creatures. It is a proof of concept that demonstrates how AI can be woven into the filmmaking process. Produced in only nine months, compared to the three or more years it typically takes to make an animated feature, the film blends traditional artistry with cutting-edge AI tools. Human writers and animators sketched out the story and characters, but artificial intelligence helped accelerate the process by generating script variations, producing visual concepts, and building out scene ideas. Professional voice actors still played a central role, ensuring that the emotional core of the film remained human-driven, while AI supported the production by reducing repetitive, time-intensive tasks. OpenAI's role here is not to transform itself into a movie studio but to highlight what its technology can do. By showing how AI can speed up production pipelines, cut costs, and expand creative possibilities, the company is offering a glimpse into a future where large-scale animation is no longer confined to billion-dollar studios. Critterz cost less than $30 million to produce, a fraction of the $100 to $200 million that major animated features typically require. This kind of cost reduction has massive implications. Independent creators and smaller studios could soon compete with Hollywood giants. Storylines could evolve more dynamically, with AI quickly generating new concept art, storyboards, or even fully animated sequences. Instead of years of specialized training in animation software, creators may be able to use natural language prompts to bring their ideas to life. In this sense, AI could democratize animation much like YouTube democratized video publishing. What was once a medium dominated by a handful of powerful players could open up to a new generation of storytellers armed with affordable tools. Yet for all its potential, Critterz is still an experiment. The film is expected to debut at the Cannes Film Festival, giving it one of the most prestigious stages in world cinema. But despite the buzz, it does not yet have a distribution deal. That uncertainty reflects a larger question: will audiences embrace a film that so openly wears its AI origins? Also read: What is Wan 2.2: Free AI video generation tool going viral right now Reactions within Hollywood have been mixed. Some see the project as a bold step into the future, a sign that filmmaking will become faster, cheaper, and more accessible. Others are more cautious, worried about what this trend could mean for jobs in animation, visual effects, and screenwriting. There are also open questions around copyright and intellectual property, particularly concerning the data used to train AI models. One of the most important takeaways from Critterz is that artificial intelligence is not replacing human creativity, at least not yet. The film still relied heavily on the work of artists, writers, and voice actors to give it depth and emotional resonance. AI acted as an accelerator, not an author. This hybrid approach points to a possible new era of filmmaking where humans remain responsible for vision and storytelling, while AI handles the heavy lifting in production. If Critterz succeeds, it may mark the beginning of a seismic shift in how movies are made. Studios could begin using AI to prototype films more quickly before committing large budgets. Entirely new AI-native production houses might emerge, challenging traditional giants. Storytelling itself could evolve, with rapid iteration enabling new genres or even interactive experiences shaped by audience feedback in real time. Of course, risks remain. Copyright disputes are already surfacing across creative industries, fears of job displacement persist, and the challenge of keeping human artistry at the center of AI-driven projects will only grow. Still, one thing is certain: Critterz is more than just a movie. It is a test case for the future of creativity in the age of artificial intelligence, and its reception will help determine whether AI becomes Hollywood's newest co-star or its most controversial disruptor.