One of the contenders at the 2025 Oscars now faces a major controversy. The Brutalist, one of the most championed movies of 2024, is facing backlash for its use of AI.
Over the weekend, Red Shark News published an interview with editor Dávid Jancsó, who revealed The Brutalist used AI tools from the Ukrainian special Respeecher to make small tweaks to the Hungarian dialogue spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. Jancsó also mentioned how AI was used to make the architectural designs and buildings in The Brutalist’s closing sequence.
The AI news has sparked outrage within the film community, with some suggesting The Brutalist should be disqualified from awards contention. Director Brady Corbet released a statement to clarify the AI use, stating the actors’ portrayals are “completely their own” and that the AI “preserved the authenticity” of said performances.
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“Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own,” Corbet said in a statement via Deadline. “They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”
In the issue over the film’s final sequence involving architectural blueprints, Corbet said, “Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All images were hand-drawn by artists. To clarify, in the memorial video featured in the background of a shot, our editorial team created pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980.”
Corbet finished with this statement: “‘The Brutalist’ is a film about human complexity, and every aspect of its creation was driven by human effort, creativity, and collaboration. We are incredibly proud of our team and what they’ve accomplished here.”
The Brutalist is now in theaters.
