AI Movies Multiply, Reply Festival Returns, The Fastest AI Video Generator

Here come the AI movies. The independent cinematic AI community made three project announcements this week. Promise dropped the trailer for its upcoming feature, Ninjapunks. AI Studio GraiL introduced its feature, Chimera Protocol. Runway released its Mars and Sky AI animated series. [Scroll down to see them.]

Last week Asteria studios announced its production with Poker Face actress and creator Natasha Lyonne, who revealed she is more involved in the creation of Asteria and Moonvalley than was previously reported.

Reply has announced the jury for the second edition of the Reply AI Film Festival, an international competition for short films created with AI tools. Italian director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) will chair the jury, joined by returning members Rob Minkoff (The Lion King), Shelby and Caleb Ward (Curious Refuge), and journalist Denise Negri. New jurors include Dave Clark (Promise Studios), Caroline Ingeborn (COO, Luma AI), Filippo Rizzante (CTO, Reply), Paolo Moroni (Lexus Italy), and Guillem Martinez Roura (ITU AI for Good). The 2025 theme is “Generation of Emotions,” encouraging submissions that use AI to evoke cinematic feeling. Films are due by June 1 at aiff.reply.com.

Lightricks New 13-billion-parameter AI video model generates high-quality video up to 30 times faster than comparable systems. I used the model recently and can attest to its astonishing speed. It’s not even close and the results are right up there with the top gen-video AI tools. The model is open source and free to license for companies making under $10 million annually, which is part of the company’s push to make pro-grade generative tools widely accessible. Integrated into LTX Studio, the model uses a multiscale rendering approach, starting with low-res drafts before layering in detail and motion. It’s optimized to run on consumer GPUs, distinguishing it from rivals that require enterprise hardware. The model includes advanced controls for camera movement, character action, and multi-shot editing. Importantly, Lightricks has also partnered with Getty and Shutterstock to ethically train its tools using licensed assets.

Dozens of YouTube Channels Are Showing AI-Generated Cartoon Gore and Fetish Content. A Wired investigation has uncovered a disturbing trend on YouTube. Dozens of channels are using generative AI to produce videos featuring cartoon characters like cats and minions in violent, gory, and sexualized scenarios. These videos, often labeled as child-friendly, echo the 2017 “Elsagate” scandal, where inappropriate content targeted at children exploited YouTube’s algorithms for profit. The ease of creating such content with AI tools has led to a surge in these videos, complicating moderation efforts. YouTube has responded by terminating some channels and suspending monetization on others, but many remain active.

The first two stories in my AI and media series are live: AI and Hollywood’s Next Golden Age looks at how generative tools are transforming production. Hollywood is Losing the War for Attention explores how traditional media lost its grip on culture to platforms like TikTok, Roblox, and Fortnite. These pieces are part of an ongoing attempt to make sense of disruption on this scale in media and entertainment in particular. However, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that this is a microcosm of what is happening in the entire economy. Next up I’m working on Big Tech Owns Hollywood, a closer look at how Amazon, Apple, and Meta now control the platforms, the pipelines, and the audience. After that, Games Dwarf Movies will examine the new attention economy and why persistent, playable worlds are displacing passive viewing. A third piece, In the Age of AI, Celebrity Flourishes, will look at the resilience and reinvention of celebrity in synthetic culture. Each story is a step toward understanding both the coming golden age of Hollywood, and the competition with algorithms programmed to engage and influence.

Promise Studios released NinjaPunk, a short sci-fi trailer for an upcoming feature. It was made using a mix of traditional production and AI-assisted techniques. Set in a neon-drenched Los Angeles in 2065, the film follows a cybernetic ninja on a revenge mission. Co-founder Dave Clark and VFX supervisor Rob Nederhorst combined live-action stunt capture with AI-generated environments to streamline production without sacrificing visual ambition.

Grail Studios’ Davide Bianchi wrote, directed and performed in this new teaser for an upcoming cinematic AI film, Chimera Protocol. “What if I told you in exactly sixteen hours, the world ends?,” asks the narrator. “It wasn’t just a bank job. What they were after was a suitcase. They call it the Genesis Drive, and once it’s linked She stops calculating … and starts thinking.”

Runway Studios released the pilot episode of its first AI animated series, Mars and Siv, created by Jeremy Higgins and Britton Korbel. They’re shopping this to streamers. It would be great for the ecosystem if someone legit picks it up.