OpenAI supports the first animated film created with AI/video screenshot
OpenAI wants to prove that generative artificial intelligence can create feature-length films faster and cheaper than Hollywood. To do this, the company is providing its tools for the production of the animated film Critterz. The finished film is planned to be presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026.
This is reported by Delo.ua with reference to the material of The Wall Street Journal.
Critterz is a joint project with production companies Vertigo Films (London) and Native Foreign (Los Angeles). The team plans to complete filming in about nine months, compared to the typical three-year Hollywood production time.
The film's budget is less than $30 million, significantly less than the typical cost of animated films. The team plans to hire actors to voice the characters and artists to draw sketches that will be used for OpenAI's tools, including GPT-5 and image generation models.
The idea for the film belongs to Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who began experimenting with the DALL-E image generation tool three years ago.
Critterz follows a group of woodland creatures who embark on a journey after their village is destroyed by a stranger. The script was written by the same writers who worked on Paddington in Peru.
Critterz character sketches / Photo: Critterz Film Ltd
While many major studios, such as Disney and Netflix, are already experimenting with artificial intelligence, they are wary of its widespread use, due to protests from actors' and writers' guilds, who fear job losses, as well as copyright issues.
For example, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. have already filed lawsuits against AI service provider Midjourney for allegedly creating copies of their copyrighted works.
According to Chad Nelson, the success of Critterz should be a compelling demonstration of the capabilities of AI.
“OpenAI can talk all day about what its tools do, but it will have a much greater impact if someone does it themselves,” he notes.
The company hopes that this project will accelerate the implementation of AI in Hollywood and lower the barrier of entry for creative people.
Critterz was originally conceived as a short film and released in 2023 to coincide with the anniversary of OpenAI's DALL-E launch.
Recall that OpenAI introduced GPT-5, a new AI model with improved accuracy and expanded capabilities.
