Oscars frontrunner The Brutalist uses generative AI, and it might cost it the Best Picture prize

The Brutalist, one of the Oscars frontrunners with nine BAFTA 2025 nominations, could have faltered its chance at the biggest prize of them all after the film’s editor revealed the use of generative AI to make the movie feel more authentic.

The movie, which is expected to earn many Academy Award nominations when they are revealed later this week, tells the story of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and moves across the Atlantic to chase the American Dream. Brody’s mother is Hungarian, while his father is of Polish Jewish descent, and the actor himself has spoken about how he sees his own immigrant grandparent’s struggles in the character he portrays. While Brody’s excellent performance is expected to receive a Best Actor nomination, having already won Best Actor in a Drama at the Golden Globes earlier this month, his performance and other aspects of The Brutalist are now coming under intense scrutiny.

AI-enhanced voices

Speaking to RedShark News, The Brutalist’s editor Dávid Jancsó revealed that generative AI was used to improve Hungarian pronunciations as a large majority of the movie’s dialogue is in Hungarian.

Jancsó said: “I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce. Even with Adrien’s Hungarian background it’s not that simple. It’s an extremely unique language. We coached [Brody and Felicity Jones] and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference.”

AI tool, Respeecher, was reportedly used to enhance the actors’ speech and “enhance specific letters of their vocal sounds”. Jancsó even fed the AI his own dialogue to help shape an authentic Hungarian dialect; “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 use of AI to enhance dialogue has been met by critique online, with one user on X accusing the film of “manipulating the actors’ accents, a fundamental aspect of… acting. This is a disgrace”.

Another user said: “The use of AI to enhance an actor’s accent as the case seems to be in #TheBrutalist is a red line crossed. The magic seems to wear off when you replace human talent with an algorithmic output.”

The backlash from the editor’s openness to the use of generative AI could see Academy voters turn away from The Brutalist when Oscars voting begins, especially considering the ongoing fight for actors’ rights against artificial intelligence.

On Reddit, the opinion is more mixed with some users accepting the fact that AI has been used to improve dialogue for the audience’s benefit. U/sotommy said: “As a Hungarian, it’s completely understandable. They would never sound like native speakers, it’s just almost impossible to do it naturally. They did not alter the accents, only the Hungarian dialogue. I’m actually really thankful for this gesture because they could have just ignored the authenticity, which would have meant nothing to the rest of the world.”

The use of AI here is minimal, with an element of creativity that relies on Jancsó’s own language to merge sounds and create an authentic experience. It’s also worth noting that many films might use similar editing techniques, although directors and editors are not often as upfront about it, as on this occasion.

But there’s more AI use…

While you’d expect AI-enhanced dialogue might be the main area for criticism when it comes to the way gen AI is used in The Brutalist, it’s actually not the only instance of artificial intelligence in the film. Towards the end of the movie, there’s a sequence of scenes where AI has been used to create architectural drawings and buildings.

Jancsó spoke on the matter, saying “it is controversial in the industry to talk about AI, but it shouldn’t be.

“We should be having a very open discussion about what tools AI can provide us with. There’s nothing in the film using AI that hasn’t been done before. It just makes the process a lot faster. We use AI to create these tiny little details that we didn’t have the money or the time to shoot.”

Considering just how controversial the use of AI in cinema is, even generating a small element of a highly-regarded film like The Brutalist is enough to make front-page news. While we’re unsure how the topic of AI could impact the way the Academy nominates and ultimately votes for Oscars, it’s fair to say that headlines like these won’t do The Brutalist any favors. With nominations dropping on January 23, we won’t know if The Brutalist can shake off these AI criticisms and win big at the 97th Academy Awards until March 3.