There isn’t a major frontrunner for the Oscars this year – not even in Best Actress, where I feel Mikey Madison far outshines her competition. That often makes for a more interesting award season, and it’s certainly not for a lack of great films this year.
However, we have not had a movie that has been a commercial smash and critically acclaimed, built in equal parts on top notch writing, directorial flair, and career best performances like Oppenheimer this time around. In that void, The Brutalist has emerged as a potential front-runner, especially in Best Picture and Best Actor. And now, it may have blown its chances.
Just a few days before the Oscar shortlists are revealed on January 23, The Brutalist has been mired in controversy about its use of AI. It feels like AI is an inevitable part of our creative future – especially as even tasks as mundane as a spreadsheet adding together numbers has now been rebranded as AI to ride the current trend. But The Brutalist’s use of AI is particularly damning, and I believe it should be grounds for disqualification from the two major categories it is considered a possible front-runner for.
How Has The Brutalist Used AI?
There are two ways in which The Brutalist has used AI, both of which are highly controversial. The first is for accent work. Both Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones speak Hungarian in parts of the movie, and AI has been used to enhance their accents. This seems a strange decision, as most viewers would not be able to tell the difference, and if perfect Hungarian was crucial, hire a Hungarian (which Brody already is on his mother’s side, for the record).
This accent work had previously been praised as one of the core pillars of Brody’s performance – a good accent is an important part of characterisation, and clever use of voice has been a hallmark of the career of Christian Bale, who (aside from the obvious in-character modulation of Batman), has never required assistance. That Brody only reached this level with the aid of AI means the performance is not him, and therefore I would suggest he is not fit for Best Actor.
The Academy once banned Scarlett Johansson, nominated for her voice work in Her, as she physically does not appear on screen. In some ways, this seems the inverse of that problem.
The second way it utilises AI is for architectural sketches. The reason offered is that it is time saving, the same one put forward by Late Night With The Devil for its AI commercial break placards in a movie that otherwise puts massive emphasis on practical work. Likewise, The Brutalist is a movie about the value of hand-crafted artistry, and it seems to get in the way of its own messaging with this decision. I feel this is less damaging than the accent work, and would be less of a mind to say this rules it out completely (although Brody and Jones’ performances fall under the Best Picture umbrella too). Going against your own themes is not a crime, but it is disappointing that even a movie about creating with one’s own hands settled for subpar creation by a computer instead.
AI Creates Bigger Issues Than The Oscar Rules
I don’t mean to be hysterical about AI. I personally believe the push towards AI is bad for our long term future – even aside from the energy costs, AI can block starter jobs and pathways, it leads to a ‘that will do’ attitude, and atrophies our creativity. Even its biggest defenders admit AI generates results based on existing information, meaning AI will eventually (and probably in the near future) reach a plateau and will never be able to offer anything fresh or unexpected.
However, I don’t believe using it at all should mean inevitable shaming or being struck off for every award possible. When everything gets called AI anyway, this gets messy. I would specifically say generative AI is the sticking point, and even then, there may be a balance. I don’t support deepfaking Luke Skywalker, but I do think deaging Robert DeNiro for The Irishman is fine. Deaging Robbie Williams’ vocals for Better Man is an edge case, but then he’s not going to be nominated for Best Actor for voicing himself as a chimp, so it’s less of an issue in this specific discussion.
The problem is twofold. Firstly, there’s the sanctity of art to consider. If we give Adrien Brody an award for his performance when a key part of that performance was enhanced by a computer, it’s not his performance. I find this crosses a line that, say, Margot Robbie or Natalie Portman having skating/dancing stunt doubles in I, Tonya and Black Swan does not, because it moves from suspension of disbelief into hoodwinking the audience.
But secondly, there are the ramifications. Seeing Ian Holm be brought back to life for Alien: Romulus was vulgar, but the fact is there is a darker application of this technology that its supporters are well aware of but choose to ignore. Joe Russo has discussed using AI to cast yourself in a romcom with Marilyn Monroe, and his choice of a long-deceased sex symbol whose life was made miserable by abusive men (and who has continued to be taken advantage of in death through the likes of Blonde) is telling. We’ve seen streamers be caught watching deepfaked adult movies of fellow streamers, and the more available this technology gets, the more we will see it used for these nefarious ends.
This abuse of women is not Adrien Brody or The Brutalist’s fault, and that’s why it’s important to not be hysterical. These movies are created on computers, and I’m typing this on a computer, so am I to blame too? It can get ridiculous. But AI offers a largely unchecked way to commit these sorts of deeds, so it’s also important not to overlook that for fear of being seen as hysterical.
Ultimately, the Academy voters will decide how big an issue this is for them, as will the voters of the various other ceremonies in the run-up to the Oscars. It is too late for nominees to be changed now, and I doubt the Academy will make the move to outlaw Brody’s performance despite the controversy – any rules over the use of AI must be made with careful consideration, and not with a singular example in mind. However, I hope individual voters take stock of the issues here. With a last minute twist to the voting procedure to let an outsider rise to become the front-runner, it would be very fitting indeed if Ralph Fiennes were now to win for Conclave.
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