Controversy Surrounds Oscar Frontrunner 'The Brutalist' Over AI Tool Usage

Brady Corbet's film The Brutalist has emerged as a top contender for Best Picture at the upcoming Academy Awards. However, the film has ignited controversy online after its editor, Dávid Jancsó, disclosed that AI tools played a role in the production.

In an interview with Red Shark News, Jancsó mentioned that they used Respeecher voice cloning software to enhance the authenticity of Hungarian dialogue delivered by stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. He explained, "I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce. It’s an extremely unique language. We coached Brody and Jones and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference."

Jancsó highlighted that Respeecher was a last resort after trying various methods to improve the dialogue. He said, "If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world, certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp. We first tried to ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) these harder elements with the actors. Then we tried to ADR them completely with other actors, but that just didn’t work. So we looked for other options to enhance it."

He elaborated that the AI software was utilized to merge his own voice with the actors' performances, stating, "Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there. We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there. You can do this in ProTools yourself, but we had so much dialogue in Hungarian that we really needed to speed up the process; otherwise, we’d still be in post-production."

The Brutalist has already garnered accolades at the Golden Globes, winning awards for Best Director, Best Male Actor in a Drama, and Best Picture in the Drama category.

With the announcement stirring discussions about its potential impact on the Oscars, Corbet defended the film in a statement to Deadline. He asserted, "Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed."

Corbet added that the AI's role was strictly focused on polishing the Hungarian dialogue, stating that it was a manual process done with care to maintain the authenticity of the actors' performances. He clarified that the technology was never meant to replace their work.

Additionally, AI was employed to create various architectural blueprints and visuals featured in the film’s concluding sequence. Corbet clarified that production designer Judy Becker and her team did not utilize AI for the actual rendering of the buildings, mentioning, "All images were hand-drawn by artists. To clarify, in the memorial video featured in the background of a shot, our editorial team created pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980."

In conclusion, Corbet expressed pride in the efforts that went into making The Brutalist, stating, "It is a film about human complexity, and every aspect of its creation was driven by human effort, creativity, and collaboration. We are incredibly proud of our team and what they’ve accomplished here."

film, AI, Oscar