Thierry Fremaux on AI: "We Are on the Side of the Artists"

Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux took a clear position in interviews during the festival: the festival stands with the workers AI threatens, not with the technology itself. "What I can say with certainty in relation to artificial intelligence is that we are on the side of the artists, the screenwriters, actors and voice actors", Fremaux told Deadline. "We stand with everyone whose job could be negatively impacted by artificial intelligence. It requires legislation."

The statement came during a stretch of Cannes 2026 where AI was the defining conversation in the Marché du Film. Fremaux's interviews covered the new Oscar rules on AI, Hollywood's conspicuous absence from the festival, and the Academy's changes to the international film category.

The Oscar AI Rules: "Obvious"

Variety asked Fremaux to react to the Academy's new rules barring AI generated characters from Best Actor consideration and restricting AI scripted films from certain categories. His answer was brief: he called the rules "obvious".

"The Oscars decided recently that an AI character cannot run for the best actor prize", Fremaux said, speaking nostalgically about the transition from celluloid. He referenced a "high risk of lies" in the way digital tools now allow manipulation of images in films that present themselves as authentic. The full Academy rule changes covering AI actors and scripts had been announced earlier in the spring.

The Electric Bike Analogy

Pressed on what responsible AI use looks like in practice, Fremaux reached for an analogy: "To ride an electric bike, you have to know how to ride a normal bike".

The analogy frames AI as an amplifier of existing craft rather than a replacement for it. Fremaux did not elaborate on how the festival would apply that principle to submissions going forward, but the statement aligns with his earlier proposal for an organic film label at the opening press conference, which would distinguish films made with minimal AI intervention.

Hollywood's Absence and the AI Connection

Fremaux addressed the departure of major Hollywood studios and directors from the 2026 festival directly. "Hollywood is undergoing a major shake-up", he told Deadline. "After COVID, the writers' strike, which, incidentally, is linked to issues surrounding artificial intelligence, followed by restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, and so on."

The framing was notable: Fremaux explicitly connected the WGA strike, which was driven in part by AI protections, to the broader disruption that pulled Hollywood back from Cannes. He expressed hope that studios would return the following year, but did not minimize the scale of what he described as a "major shake-up".

Opening Up to the World

Fremaux was more enthusiastic when the conversation shifted to the Academy's changes to the Best International Feature Film category, which now allows films that won top prizes at Cannes to qualify directly. He cited 19 Cannes film nominations in the run-up to the 98th Academy Awards as evidence of the relationship's strength.

"Hollywood is opening up to the international scene, opening up to universality; that's what Cannes is all about", Fremaux told Variety.

Cannes president Iris Knobloch offered a complementary read in a separate interview. "What's changed isn't Cannes' relationship with Hollywood", she said. "It's Hollywood itself". The two statements together position Cannes as a stable anchor while the American industry processes its own structural crisis.

For context on how those shifts played out across the 2026 festival, the Cannes 2026 AI acceptance overview documents the broader pattern of disclosure and industry reaction. Filmmakers exploring the AI production tools at the center of the Cannes debate can access them through the AI FILMS Studio video workspace.

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Sources

Variety | Deadline | Screen Daily