AI emerges as ‘unofficial star’ at IFFI
PANAJI: The 56th edition of the International Film Festival of India still has its most compelling story unfolding not on the big screen but in the buzzing technical halls where artificial intelligence has unexpectedly taken centre stage.
What began as a series of specialised workshops has now become the cornerstone of industry conversations, making AI the “unofficial star” of this year’s festival.
Filmmakers, technicians, students and international industry professionals are thronging the sessions on AI, where the discussions veer from machine-assisted editing and generative visual effects to script analysis and AI-led planning of cinematography.
The air is more akin to a technology conference than a film festival, with attendees queueing up outside workshops well before the doors open. Several first-time attendees confess that they came to Goa mainly to understand the intersection of cinema and AI as a need-to-know rather than a nice-to-know experimentation.
The overriding feeling from these sessions is that AI is now not viewed as a threat to creative freedom, but as a game-changing collaborator.
For senior filmmakers, it’s described as “the new assistant director” - a tool which can condense weeks of pre-production into hours, make rapid visualisation possible, and offer independent creators the wherewithal to work in scales hitherto possible only with leading studios.
To directors like Shekhar Kapur and Vishal Bhardwaj, who have spoken at IFFI in detail on technological disruption, this coming together of AI means an opportunity for India to lead the global creative revolution, not follow it.
Another overriding thread weaving through this year’s discussions is sustainability. AI-driven virtual location scouting, predictive scheduling, and smart crowd simulation are being positioned as ways to cut down on waste and further minimise the environmental impact of filmmaking.
Festival officials suggest that sustainability could soon become a formal category at IFFI, one that is heavily influenced by emerging technologies.
In many ways, IFFI 56 represents a turning point. While the festival continues with its schedule of celebrating artistic excellence and cinematic diversity, its most enduring legacy this year might be in the way it prepares filmmakers to carry on their work in a future when storytelling and intelligent technologies evolve side by side.
If earlier editions celebrated content, this one is firmly focused on preparing the creators of tomorrow.
