On Thursday, Feb. 19, AMC Theatres prevented an AI-generated short film from premiering in its cinemas nationwide. The film “Thanksgiving Day” was expected to be released in March of this year, but the film was unable to be screened due to the backlash the company had received regarding the filmmaker’s use of artificial intelligence.
Director Igor Alferov’s film first premiered at the Frame Forward AI Innovated Film Festival on Tuesday, Feb. 17, and won first place. The top prize for Alferov’s film was a two-week limited release at select AMC Theaters across the country. When the film was announced as the first-place winner for the festival, people immediately took to social media to criticize the theater chains’ decision to include AI in the films that they release.
Tyler Gillmer, who has been an employee of AMC Theatres for 5 years, expressed his relief for the company’s decision not to premiere the AI-generated film. “AMC is one of the oldest movie theatre companies in the world, so potentially showing the film would have put a bad name on the business. I think that other movie theatre chains should ban the film because [they are] essentially saying they will show anything that can bring them in money,” Gillmer expressed.
Google’s Gemini 3.1 and Nano Banana Pro were the AI programs that Alferov used to aid in the creation of his film. Gemini is powered with the ability to create images and videos based on the prompt a user provides. Nano Banana Pro has the capability to edit content to enhance its overall quality. Dr. Gregory Seigworth, a communication studies professor at Millersville University, shared his support for art that is created by humans.
“We want to believe [creativity] belongs to humans, less so than machines, though those are not easily separated. That is the unique sweat and tears and blood of humans that doesn’t quite translate to machines,” Seigworth emphasized.
Modern Uprising Studios, the film festival’s organizer, intended to partner with Screenvision Media to distribute the film where it would have been shown during previews for the theater chain. However, the organizer for the film festival reaffirmed the company’s belief that artificial intelligence can work in tandem with film production.
The movie theater companies that currently partner with Modern Uprising Studios have not publicly commented if they intend on banning the film from their theaters at this time. Dr. Seigworth hopes that content generated by humans can be prioritized despite there being an increase in art that is made with artificial intelligence.
“All the things that look the opposite of AI will start to be things that people do intentionally. That is, you know, playing around with the parameters of AI to do something that at least allows the human element to creep back in,” Seigworth said.
The short film’s premise is about a platypus and a bear who combat against a wide range of enemy forces as they travel through space. “Thanksgiving Day” is Alferov’s directorial debut, and it is currently available to stream for free on the film festival’s YouTube channel.
