The future of filmmaking is being defined by a new kind of creative partnership: artists experimenting with AI, iterating, and bringing ambitious visions to life.
For the past year, efforts have been made side-by-side with filmmakers to explore ways to advance and enhance artistic processes with generative AI. However, a clear message has also emerged: for AI to truly empower, it must be community-driven and supported by accessible education. Currently, the majority of media companies feel overwhelmed by the pace of AI change, with only 25% investing in training.
Google.org is providing $2 million in funding to the Sundance Institute to build a community-led ecosystem for AI education and empowerment. This funding will help bridge the AI skills gap by training over 100,000 artists in foundational AI skills and democratize access to AI learning for filmmakers. This effort is part of Google.org’s AI Opportunity Fund, an initiative that helps Americans develop essential AI skills by funding best-in-class workforce development and education organizations across critical segments of society.
A trusted ecosystem for AI filmmaking education
By supporting Sundance Institute’s AI training efforts, Google.org is enabling a community-led ecosystem that focuses on:
- Building the storytelling hubs of the future: Sundance Institute will establish an AI Literacy Alliance initiative in collaboration with The Gotham and Film Independent. This initiative will empower artist communities by providing training and support of the establishment of values and ethics that protect human creativity, artists and the creative industry at-large.
- Turning big ideas into technical skills: Sundance Institute and alliance partners will develop a free online curriculum to help bridge the gap between creative curiosity and effective technical use. This will include scholarships for Google courses like AI Essentials.
- Advancing artist learning and developing standards: Sundance Institute will launch an AI Creators Fellowship for technical experimentation and host community conversations to develop shared case studies, reports and industry-led standards.
A year of collaborative innovation
For the past year, filmmakers have been invited to labs to co-create new tools and inform the technical requirements of generative models based on the practical, rigorous standards of the filmmaking craft. This announcement from Google.org is the natural evolution of a “collaboration-first” approach, building on recent initiatives such as:
- Flow: Built with creatives, for creatives: Storytellers were given early access to Flow, an AI filmmaking tool. Their hands-on feedback helped shape an interface that, today, serves as a place where artists can explore and iterate on cinematic ideas. Through the program Flow Sessions, work continues closely with a group of creatives — providing them with mentorship, AI education and unlimited access to the tool as they work to create short films of all types.
- AI on Screen: In partnership with Range Media Partners, a short film program was launched to explore the evolving relationship with technology through the creation of films about AI, not made with AI. The program’s first film, Sweetwater, examines the poignant concept of digitally preserving a loved one’s memory.
- Primordial Soup: A partnership with Darren Aronofsky’s Primordial Soup on the film Ancestra forced generative models to solve real-world production hurdles. To meet director Eliza McNitt’s vision, advanced capabilities like personalized video for character consistency and motion matching were developed to replicate complex 3D camera paths.
Today’s independent filmmakers are at the center of a foundational shift. But tools do nothing on their own; it is human imagination that gives them purpose. The goal is no longer just to learn a new tool, but to realize the creative potential that AI unlocks for their specific vision. Across ongoing collaborations and investment in community-led education, the commitment is to ensure that the future of film remains firmly in the hands of the storytellers.
