Join Us
Two day screenings and roundtables in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television convene an international dialogue on AI and cinema, bringing together critique and practice to shape sustainable approaches to production, distribution, and creative work.
Current AI discourse often falls into polarized camps: Critics who reject AI and advocates emphasizing the advancements. In the context of film and media culture, anxieties about AI’s impact on labor, authorship, ownership and aesthetics stand in sharp contrast to promises of democratic access to cultural production and a new golden age for filmmaking.
Future of Cinema, a 2-day conference about AI in film, seeks to bridge these divides by bringing together experts from academia, the film industry, technology, media advocacy, and curatorship, to collectively address a moment of profound transformation.
The conference includes three sessions around interrelated themes, and two evening screenings featuring works presented by Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland’s preeminent cinematic event, and works by LA-based filmmakers and archives, fostering a transatlantic exchange in this global debate.
The event is a continuation of the Future of Reality Conference that took place at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival, in which AI emerged as a major theme. It is organized by Emma Broggini, Lucas Hagin, Evelyn Kreutzer, Kevin B. Lee, Maya Montañez Smukler, Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, and Nicole Ucedo.
Session Details
The sessions are organized as conversations around three interrelated themes, investigating our relationship with technology both past and present and its implications for our political, ethical and creative lives.
Session 1
Visions of AI Film Culture: Examining How AI Reshapes our Imagination of Cinema and its Possibilities
October 24, 2025 / 4–5:30pm
Darren Star Theater, UCLA
Session 2
AI’s Impact on Film Culture — Taking Stock of Current Challenges and Concerns, from Labor Conditions to creative Practices
October 25, 2025 / 2–3:30pm
Darren Star Theater, UCLA
Session 3
Strategies for a Sustainable AI Future — Exploring Alternative Models, Collective Strategies, and Ethical Frameworks for Moving Forward
October 25, 2025 / 4–5:30pm
Darren Star Theater, UCLA
Screening Details
The screening program presents a selection of archival and contemporary short films and video essays that explore the intersection of technology, AI and film history. Through documentary, experimental and artistic means, the selected works investigate our relationship with technology, its historical legacies and its implications for the political, ethical and stylistic fabric of our time.
Screening Day 1
Visions of the Future: Then and Now
October 24, 2025 / 7:30–9:30pm
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum
This screening includes Q&A with filmmaker Allison de Fren, filmmakers and programmers Evelyn Kreutzer and Kevin B. Lee, Professor Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, vice chair of UCLA Cinema and Media Studies, and Professor Amy Villarejo, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Series programmed by Evelyn Kreutzer, Kevin B. Lee, Maya Montañez Smukler, Mark Quigley and Nicole Ucedo.
Screening Day 2
REAL by Adele Tulli
October 25, 2025 / 7:30–9:30pm
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum
This screening features Real by Adele Tulli, which had its world premiere at the 77th Locarno Film Festival. It will be followed by a Q&A with the director, moderated by Kevin B. Lee.
*Admission to the screenings is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.
Speakers
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Bio
Evelyn Kreutzer
Postdoctoral ResearcherEvelyn Kreutzer is a postdoctoral researcher and video essayist/filmmaker at the Università della Svizzera italiana. She is a co-leader of the SNSF-funded research group “The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies” in Lugano and Lucerne, Switzerland, in which she focuses on AI and its impact on audiovisual memory culture. Her written and videographic work has been published in journals like NECSUS, MSMI, [in]Transition, and The Cine-Files. Her monograph Televising Taste is forthcoming with Lever Press.
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Bio
Kevin B. Lee
Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of CinemaKevin B. Lee is a filmmaker and media researcher who has produced nearly 400 video essays exploring film and media. His award-winning Transformers: The Premake introduced the “desktop documentary” format. His work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Berlinale, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as websites such as The New York Times and Mubi. He is the Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). He co-leads the Swiss National Science Foundation research project “The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies.” His new feature film “Afterlives” screened at BFI London Film Festival and DocLisboa International Film Festival.
