Summary
Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial premiered at the New York Film Festival ahead of a December 25 US theatrical release from Neon. The $40 million dark comedy dramatizes Sam Altman’s 2023 removal and return as OpenAI chief executive, with Andrew Garfield as Altman and Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever. Early critics praised both performances and the film’s treatment of ambition, control and corporate power. Neon plans an awards campaign, including Borisov for lead actor and Garfield, Mark Rylance and Monica Barbaro in supporting categories. Reports also note that Amazon MGM left the project after deepening its OpenAI relationship; Amazon said another distributor would be better for the film. Altman, who has only seen the trailer, said the production did not appear to be pursuing factual accuracy.
Hana’s perspective
I find the film’s framing more consequential than another prestige-season launch. Artificial turns AI governance into character drama, asking audiences to understand a technical institution through power, loyalty and personality. That can make an opaque corporate crisis legible, but it also risks letting vivid performances harden one interpretation into public memory. Altman has already said the film is not aiming for factual accuracy. Viewers should treat it as an argument about Silicon Valley power, not a documentary record of OpenAI’s boardroom.
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