At the Cannes Film Market, Mandela Pictures and Oceanus Media Global debuted stills from the mystery horror film “Bisikan Desa Gringsing: Whispers of Fatimah” — a three-way co-production between Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia that uses virtual production technology; creative software developer Foundry unveiled new developments on its Nuke Stage application for end-to-end virtual production, in-camera visual effects, and high-resolution playback; and Beeble’s node-based AI compositing environment Canvas is designed for complex VFX, post, and virtual production workflows. These stories and more in this week’s list.

Filmmakers at Cannes this week are making the argument that AI technology should serve filmmakers, rather than risk replacing them; “Hell Grind” is billed as “the world’s first 90-minute sci-fi heist feature film produced entirely using Higgsfield AI, now screening at the Cannes Film Festival;” and startup TrueShort — which produces AI vertical videos intended for smartphones — has raised $12 million from Khosla Ventures, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, General Catalyst, and others. These are just some of the more compelling news items related to AI media production. Read More

ETC@USC hosted its second Synthetic Media Summit on March 6, convening media and technology leaders to identify AI applications and chart a detailed playbook for an AI-augmented future for human creativity. ETC partnered with Carnegie Mellon University, United Talent Agency, and Machine Cinema to deliver this timely, compelling event. While the Summit was closed to the press and presented off the record, we had an opportunity to speak with Yves Bergquist, director of AI in Media at ETC and the event’s organizer, about what’s next for artificial intelligence. Read More

NAB returned to Las Vegas with a focus on broadcasting, content creation, and monetization. While registration numbers were down overall – at 58,000+, according to NAB – it’s worth noting that 48 percent were first-time attendees. Broadcast tech entrepreneur Thomas Riedel’s acquisition of ARRI created buzz on the show floor, while product highlights included the Canon CN30 lens for wildlife, sports, and documentary production; new 100G versions of Blackmagic URSA Cine cameras; and DJI’s highly-anticipated Osmo Pocket 4 camera. We have video highlights from B&H and others. Read More

Doug Liman’s $70 million “Bitcoin: Killing Satoshi” – starring Gal Gadot, Casey Affleck, Isla Fisher and Pete Davidson – is described as the first studio-quality feature film to feature wall-to-wall AI-generated imagery. The film was shot over 20 days in a simple customized soundstage, while sets and lighting are being generated with AI. And during the recent Semafor World Economy conference, Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela suggested Hollywood studios should plan to produce 50 films with $100 million using AI. These stories and more in this week’s list. Read More

Forbes releases its list of top artificial intelligence companies. Not surprisingly, atop the funding category you’ll find OpenAI ($182.6 billion), Anthropic ($60 billion), and Databricks ($20 billion). In a challenge to Figma, Anthropic launches Claude Design, which converts conversational prompts into prototypes, designs, slideshows and marketing materials. The new AI tool arrives after Anthropic decided its frontier model Claude Mythos Preview was too risky to release to the public, a signal that deployments are becoming more security-driven. These are some of the headlines that caught our attention. Read More