1,000+ film professionals push AI guardrails after AI-made feature screens at Cannes

By AI, Created 4:40 AM UTC, May 22, 2026, /AGP/ – More than 1,000 film industry professionals have signed a petition calling for mandatory technical guardrails on AI video tools after Higgsfield AI screened a fully AI-generated feature at Cannes. The campaign argues current U.S., European, U.K. and Australian rules leave a gap that could let AI systems replace much of the filmmaking workforce.

Why it matters: - The petition argues AI video tools need rules that protect feature filmmaking jobs, not just likeness rights or copyright. - The campaign says AI-generated feature films could scale fast and displace major parts of the film workforce if lawmakers do not act. - The petition targets the AI generation companies themselves, rather than studios, streamers or individual filmmakers.

What happened: - Higgsfield AI screened Hell Grind, a 95-minute feature film generated entirely by AI, at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. - The film was made by 15 people in 14 days for under $500,000. - The production used no actors on set, no cinematographers behind cameras, no gaffers, no set builders, no costume designers and no sound recordists. - More than 1,000 industry professionals worldwide have signed the petition, called “Protect The Film Industry From AI.” - The petition proposes a framework called “visual drift” that it says no current legislation or industry initiative addresses.

The details: - Higgsfield CEO Alex Mashrabov called Hell Grind “a signal to the entire industry” and compared its budget with the roughly $50 million a traditional version would require. - Director Aitore Zholdaskali said Higgsfield is doing for filmmakers what the laptop did for musicians. - The petition argues that comparison breaks down because AI can generate a feature film end to end without filmmakers in the loop. - The film was made using real people who licensed their likenesses through Higgsfield’s framework, but the petition says the same platform can already create original AI characters with no real person’s likeness. - The petition says that creates a legal gap that would not be covered by the NO FAKES Act, the TRAIN Act or the CLEAR Act. - Higgsfield needed 16,000 generations to produce 253 usable shots for Hell Grind, a 64:1 ratio that the petition uses to show how much AI systems are pushed toward visual consistency. - The proposed guardrail would require subtle variation across characters, faces, environments and continuity between separate generations. - The petition says that would keep AI clips usable for short-form work while making them non-consumable as feature-length cinema. - The petition says the rule would not restrict short-form content, concept art, music videos, storyboarding or marketing. - The petition says it addresses one capability only: producing consumable feature-length films and series that replace human filmmaking. - The petition proposes nine mechanisms across four categories: visual drift between generations, progressive drift within single generations, transparency through invisible watermarking and fingerprint registries, and international coordination. - The petition says it is aimed at the 10-15 AI video generation companies building these tools, including OpenAI, Google, Runway, Kling and Pika.

Between the lines: - The campaign is trying to regulate the model behavior of AI video tools before the technology becomes cheap enough to mass-produce full-length films. - Its core argument is that lawmakers are focusing on downstream harms, while the real choke point is the generation software itself. - The petition frames this as a familiar policy fight: regulate the platform, not ban the technology. - It compares the proposal to anti-piracy rules that made large-scale piracy commercially unviable without outlawing the internet.

What’s next: - The petition is asking legislators in the U.S., EU, U.K. and Australia to require visual drift in AI generation tools. - Cannes has already ruled AI ineligible for official competition. - SAG-AFTRA is negotiating stronger protections, and more than 400 Hollywood creatives have written to the White House. - The EU AI Act takes effect in August 2026, but the petition says none of those measures directly address the generation tools. - Over 1,000 signers are now pressing lawmakers and AI companies to adopt guardrails before feature-film generation becomes routine.