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Justine Bateman’s No-AI Film Festival Enlists Sean Baker and Matthew Weiner to Speak
#No-AI Film Festival#Credo 23#Generative AI#Sean Baker#Justine Bateman#Hollywood technology#Human-led creativity#Filmmaking future
📌 Key Takeaways
No-AI Film Festival features prominent directors Sean Baker, Matthew Weiner, and Gus Van Sant
Festival aims to provide practical alternatives to AI in filmmaking
All profits will be distributed to filmmakers showcasing 'handmade craft'
Credo 23 serves as certification that no generative AI was used in films
📖 Full Retelling
Actress and filmmaker Justine Bateman's Credo 23 organization announced its second annual No-AI Film Festival will kick off March 27 at the American Legion, Post 43 in Hollywood, featuring director Sean Baker, Matthew Weiner, and Gus Van Sant as speakers to counteract the growing use of generative AI in filmmaking. The festival will showcase Baker's 2012 film 'Starlet,' which explores intergenerational friendship, with the director discussing both his filmmaking process and how he maintains human elements in his work. Bateman explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the event aims to provide practical alternatives to AI in filmmaking, saying 'I love when people who are really intelligent about something love to talk about it. This way, it's like 'you have no reason [as a filmmaker] to use AI. We'll tell you how to do it.' This year's festival comes with significant support from sponsors who advocate for human-led creative work, including Kodak, Fathom theatrical distributor, Tablet Magazine, The Teamsters, and Custom Sync Slates. Bateman emphasized that all films featured at the festival showcase 'handmade craft' and that all profits will be distributed to filmmakers. The festival's timing coincides with increasing AI integration in Hollywood, as evidenced by recent viral Seedance videos featuring celebrities, Disney's partnership with OpenAI for Sora technology, and AI-generated Super Bowl advertisements.
🏷️ Themes
AI in entertainment, Human creativity preservation, Filmmaking advocacy, Technology ethics
Justine Bateman (born February 19, 1966) is an American filmmaker, author and actress. Her acting work has included Family Ties, Satisfaction, Men Behaving Badly, The TV Set, Desperate Housewives, and Californication. Her feature film directorial debut, Violet, starring Olivia Munn, Luke Bracey, and...
# Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)
**Generative artificial intelligence** (also referred to as **generative AI** or **GenAI**) is a specialized subfield of artificial intelligence focused on the creation of original content. Utilizing advanced generative models, these systems are capable ...
American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1971)
Sean Baker (born February 26, 1971) is an American filmmaker. He is a director, writer, editor, and producer of independent narrative feature films which are most often about the lives of marginalized people, especially immigrants and sex workers. He made his directorial film debut with Four Letter...
Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment He spent early 2025 dominating the Oscars like no one in history. This year Anora director Sean Baker has another mission on his mind: counteracting Gen AI in filmmaking. Baker will be one of several speakers at Justine Bateman ‘s No-AI Credo 23 Film Festival, which will kick off March 27 at the American Legion, Post 43 in Hollywood. Bateman tells The Hollywood Reporter the director will screen his 2012 intergenerational-friendship drama Starlet and talk both about how he made it and infuses humanity into all his filmmaking. Also joining the lineup for similar discussions involving past work and the future of entertainment are Gus Van Sant and Matthew Weiner — solidifying the list of filmmakers who aren’t just releasing statements about AI but seeking to build a grassroots movement questioning it. Related Stories Business The Fight Over AI in Hollywood Is a Battle Between Money and Activism Business MPA Sends Cease and Desist Letter to ByteDance Over Seedance 2.0 Videos “I love when people who are really intelligent about something love to talk about it,” she tells THR . “This way, it’s like ‘you have no reason [as a filmmaker] to use AI. We’ll tell you how to do it.'” This will be the second edition of the festival and comes with a litany of sponsors who all hold a stake in human-led work, including Kodak, live-events theatrical distributor Fathom, Tablet Magazine, The Teamsters and, most pointedly, Custom Sync Slates, which has a particular interest in keeping physical productions going. The edition will screen films that all, as Bateman put it, include lots of handmade craft. All profits she says will be pooled and given out to filmmakers. Bateman’s motivation, she says, came from a need she perceived in the industry. “I just went ‘where...
