The AI in Soderbergh’s Lennon documentary caused an uproar at Cannes. The filmmaker explains

Reporting from the Cannes Film Festival, our film critic Alissa Wilkinson describes how the event is both fending off and embracing aspects of artificial intelligence.

Succession of pointless AI-generated snippets does nothing for film about the artist’s final interview, which took place on the day of his murder Coming just after his superb feature The Christophers, Steven Soderbergh has now made a surprisingly moderate documentary, dominated and frankly marred by uninteresting and pointless AI. It is about the inadvertently poignant final interview given by John Lennon and Yoko Ono on 8 December 1980 in New York’s Dakota apartment building, hours before his death. The interviewers were Dave Sholin, Laurie Kaye and Ron Hummel from San Francisco’s KFRC radio station. On their way out of the building with the conversation on tape, they were accosted by a creepy stalker-fan; in attempt to calm the man down, Laurie Kaye gave him a brand new copy of John and Yoko’s new album Double Fantasy. This sinister man was Lennon’s future murderer who got him to sign an album – perhaps this very album – and later shot him dead. It is a chilling, stomach-turning twis

The 79th Cannes Film Festival is officially underway, and France 24 is live from the Croisette for its very first Cannes 2026 special. Join Culture Editor Eve Jackson and Film Critic Emma Jones as they break down the biggest moments from opening night: the honorary Palme d’Or presented to Peter Jackson, the arrival of Hollywood stars on the red carpet, and the films already creating buzz on the Croisette.

US actor says working with the technology is better than fighting a losing battle against it Demi Moore has urged her peers not to resist the rise of artificial intelligence, saying “to fight it is a battle we will lose”. The actor, who is a member of the Cannes film festival jury, was asked during a press conference on Tuesday how AI was affecting the industry and whether she believed more regulation was needed. Continue reading...

The 2026 Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday with 22 films vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or. The off-screen discourse this year is dominated by a dispute over AI, with festival director Thierry Frémaux and thousands of French actors and filmmakers warning about its effects on the industry. Despite the absence of Hollywood studio giants such as Disney or Warner, there will be no shortage of celeb A-listers on the Croisette this year.