Higgsfield AI made Hell Grind, a 95-minute film, for $500,000

The film's debut at Cannes this spring caught public attention not for an A-list star or Oscar-winning director, but because it was created with artificial intelligence. The startup's co-founder and chief strategy officer, Mahi De Silva, argues that filmmaking remains an art that will still need directors, screenwriters, set and costume designers, and actors, even as his company demonstrates what AI can now produce on its own.

The broader industry is already negotiating the terms of that shift. A new four-year contract between major studios and SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors, broadcast journalists, news writers and editors, and other artists, put strict guardrails around how AI could be used and when content and payment would be required. Meanwhile, Higgsfield AI's Cinema Studio platform gives creatives access to 33 AI models, including OpenAI's ImageGPT, Google's Nano Banana, and TikTok parent company ByteDance's Seedream, and the company has experimented with legally licensing the likenesses of real humans for AI-created characters.

Whether this approach wins with audiences remains unsettled. McKinsey projects AI could influence up to 20% of original content spending on films and TV by 2030, but some of 2026's biggest box office hits were made using practical effects, suggesting moviegoers may be less keen to pay for films heavily reliant on computer-generated effects. The outcome likely hinges on whether AI-made films can match the draw of practical effects for paying audiences, and on how the guardrails negotiated by labor unions shape what studios can actually deploy.