Sorry, Val Kilmer fans, but the late actor’s Oscar ship has officially sailed. On Friday, Reuters reported that AI-generated acting and writing won’t be eligible for Academy Awards. The new rules from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take effect beginning with next year’s presentation, scheduled for March 2027.
The Academy’s updated rules state that while filmmakers can use AI tools, “synthetic” performers can’t win any awards. Ditto for AI-written screenplays, which must be “human-authored.” The Academy can request more information from submissions to confirm that they were created by humans.
A “performance” that won’t need further clarification is Kilmer’s fully AI-generated appearance in the upcoming indie film, As Deep as the Grave. The actor was initially cast in the movie but had to back out due to medical concerns. (He died in April 2025.) Although Kilmer never stepped foot on set, he will appear in “a significant part” of the movie, according to Variety.
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” said Coerte Voorhees, the film’s writer and director. “He really thought it was [an] important story that he wanted his name on. It was that support that gave me the confidence to say, okay let’s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”
Perhaps even more jarring than the AI-generated likeness of a dead actor is the work of a ByteDance tool that has also raised some alarm in the industry. A two-sentence prompt using Seedance 2.0 was all it took to generate a highly convincing 15-second clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duking it out on a rooftop. (C’mon, Pitt would totally kick his ass.)
The cinematic clip went viral, Hollywood experienced existential panic, and Washington even weighed in. The latest? ByteDance reportedly paused the tool’s rollout while the entertainment industry braces for a future where typing a few words could be all it takes to churn out a feature film.