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The reaction to AI at Cannes has been varied. This was the year AI companies took over the Cannes Film Festival while the studios stayed home. And we hear that Hollywood agents were even eagerly aiming to strike deals with the AI outfits, never mind what their clients publicly claimed back home.
Tech companies also took over the fest’s otherwise anemic party scene, just as they did at the Met Gala.
In the months leading up to the Cannes Film Festival, Hollywood stars and creatives had become the most vocal critics of AI. In January, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan and some 700 other industryites signed an open letter accusing big tech of “stealing” copyrighted work as they train their AI platforms. And last month, “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder called AI creators “losers” who are “not artists.”
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Croisette: This year, there were more AI heavy hitters in Cannes than execs from major studios. And sources tell Page Six Hollywood that top AI companies were being wooed by Hollywood agents behind the scenes, rather than booed or sued by their clients.
Strikingly, there was little to no criticism of AI at the scores of press conferences inside the Palais. Even the outspoken Einbinder, whose film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” won the festival’s Queer Palm award, kept mum.
One film executive called Hollywood’s vibe shift “hypocritical.”
Another noted that, “Anytime [AI] was spoken about, it was like the people were walking on eggshells.”
Other stars addressing the topic only vaguely at the fest included Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.
As was the case at the Met Gala this month, the free-spending tech and AI giants are filling a vacuum as traditional Hollywood retreats amid the austerity era. In fact, the techies bankrolled many of the parties and panels, from the Vanity Fair soiree (Meta), to Graydon Carter’s Hotel du Cap bash (Anthropic).
Among the titans roaming Cannes were Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI VP of global creative partnerships Charles Porch and an entire legion of Meta brass. (Mark Zuckerberg‘s company was an official partner of Cannes 2026 after signing a multi-year deal this month, and sponsored everything from The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast tapings to a panel titled “Fashion and Film: Perspective on the Croisette” at a pop-up inside the Majestic hotel.)
By contrast, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Sony Pictures’ Sanford Panitch were the only major studio execs to make appearances. (Langley was on hand for a 25th anniversary screening of “The Fast and the Furious,” while Panitch delivered a keynote at the Marché du Film.)
Hollywood agents were groveling to the techies rather than listening to their stars rail against them. Sources tell Page Six Hollywood that reps for a handful of A-listers approached various AI outfits with partnership proposals. “Everyone is looking for $10 million,” said one knowledgeable source. “That’s the going rate.”
At the jury press conference, Demi Moore struck a conciliatory note. “AI is here, and so to fight it is, in a sense, to fight something that is a battle that we will lose, so [we] need to find ways in which we can work with it,” “The Substance” star said. “And I think that is a more valuable path to take.”
“Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky, founder of the AI studio Primordial Soup, was more bullish. “I think storytellers more than ever will have an easier time to tell stories,” he said at a Cannes AI Summit.
For her part, Johansson, who publicly feuded with OpenAI in 2024 after the company released a ChatGPT voice named “Sky” that she alleged sounded a lot like her, skipped Cannes even though her film, “Paper Tiger,” was in competition.
“Cannes was more about the sense of return to films with an indie vibe that still connected with audiences like ‘Club Kid,’ [Palme D’Or winner] ‘Fjord’ and ‘Coward,’” said Josh Braun, co-founder of the US sales, production and distribution company Submarine. “AI as a topic in Cannes was more like a new ugly building that you know is going to block your view, but you just ignore it blissfully until it is constructed.”
At least AI actress Tilly Norwood didn’t hit the red carpet or receive an invite to any of the tech-sponsored parties this year. Save that for 2027.
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