Demi Moore Calls for Cooperation With AI as Cannes Film Festival Opens

CANNES: Hollywood star Demi Moore has urged the global film industry to embrace and responsibly manage artificial intelligence rather than resist its growing influence, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists at Cannes, Moore said artificial intelligence had already become an unavoidable reality and that fighting against it would ultimately prove ineffective.

“AI is here. And so to fight it is, in a sense, to fight something that is a battle that we will lose. So to find ways in which we can work with it is a more valuable path to take,” Moore said.

The American actor, who received her first Oscar nomination for the critically acclaimed body-horror film The Substance following its premiere at Cannes last year, returned to the prestigious festival this year as one of the nine jury members responsible for selecting the winner of the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honour, to be announced on May 23.

While acknowledging the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, Moore also expressed concern over the industry’s preparedness to safeguard creative professionals and cinematic integrity from the risks associated with rapidly advancing technology.

“Are we doing enough to protect ourselves? I don’t know,” she said. “And so my inclination would be to say probably not.”

The Cannes Film Festival currently does not permit generative AI-created films in official competition. However, debate surrounding the role of AI in filmmaking has emerged as one of the dominant discussions at this year’s festival, which continues to position itself as a guardian of cinematic artistry and storytelling standards.

Meanwhile, acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook made history as the first Korean director to serve as president of the Cannes jury.

Reflecting on the remarkable rise of South Korea’s film industry since bringing his celebrated thriller Oldboy to Cannes in 2004, Park said Korean cinema was no longer on the margins of the global entertainment landscape.

“Korea is no longer at the outskirts of the global cinematic industry,” he said through a translator.

Park explained that the success of Korean cinema was not only due to the achievements of Korean filmmakers, but also because the global film industry itself had become more inclusive and internationally connected.

He added that this transformation had made it possible for him to lead the Cannes jury, while jokingly assuring audiences that he would remain unbiased toward the Korean competition entry, Hope directed by Na Hong-jin.

Discussing the jury’s role in selecting the top films among the 22 entries competing for the Palme d’Or, Park described the process of ranking films as potentially “meaningless,” yet important because it encouraged global audiences to discover and appreciate diverse cinematic works.

“But that’s also where the value of that lies, because it’s an opportunity to tell everyone and to beg everyone to please watch these films,” he said.