Actor Adrien Brody, star of "The Brutalist," during a pre-recorded interview with BBC in London on Jan. 19, 2025.
Jeff Overs/BBC/Handout via REUTERS
“The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez,” two films that were enhanced with artificial intelligence, were nominated for numerous Academy Awards last Thursday. “The Brutalist,” which tells the story of a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States, received 10 nominations. The film’s editor, David Jancso, disclosed that he used Respeecher, an AI voice-generation tool to tweak the Hungarian spoken by actors Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, who are American and British respectively. Jancso himself is a native Hungarian speaker and acknowledged that Hungarian is “one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce.”
Meanwhile, “Emilia Pérez,” about a Mexican cartel leader’s gender transition, led all films this year with 13 Oscar nominations. The film also used Respeecher to blend the voice of the lead actress, Karla Sofía Gascón, a trans woman, with that of the French singer Camille, to help her sound natural singing in higher octaves.
The films have faced criticism for using artificial intelligence at a time when Hollywood — and its unions — have been grappling with the appropriate role of the technology in filmmaking. But post-production editing is an essential part of filmmaking. What’s the difference if the tools they use use AI or not? Share your thoughts with us here.