Venice forum says cheaper film tools haven't democratized cinema

At the 83rd Venice Film Festival, an ANFFF forum argued that lower-cost technology has not solved the biggest barriers in filmmaking: funding, access, rights and institutional power. Creators and producers said the gatekeepers have changed, but the seat at the table still depends on money, expertise and control.

Why it matters: - The Venice discussion pushed back on the idea that cheaper tools automatically make filmmaking more open. - Speakers said the real obstacles now sit in funding, legal rights, access to expertise and who controls distribution. - The debate matters for young creators, especially those using immersive media and AI, because technology can reduce costs without fixing power imbalances.

What happened: - ANFFF's Creator Incubator hosted the public forum “Democratizing Cinema: Technology, Creators and Expanding Storytelling Horizons” at the Biennale Match Point Arena during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. - The forum was part of the official Venice Production Bridge programme. - Kean Cao, CEO of MIMAOKU and founder of ANFFF, moderated the session. - Speakers included Eileen Tasca, Italian producer of EO; Shixin Tao and Yuqi Zhang, co-directors of The Pigeon Ring; and Kiddy Lee, chief director of A Cat Named T-Rex. - The forum also announced that ANFFF 2027 submissions are open on FilmFreeway, and recruitment has begun for the festival's first-round international jury.

The details: - EO won the Cannes Jury Prize and was a 2023 Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature Film. - The Pigeon Ring is a 4D Gaussian Splatting immersive work produced by Media Storm and selected for the Official Competition of Venice Immersive. - A Cat Named T-Rex is an ANFFF-supported short that combines real footage with AI-generated animation. - The session framed the three works as different models of technology use: a hand-built immersive reconstruction, a hybrid AI-and-live-action project, and a live-action feature without generated imagery. - Zhang said creators facing frontier tools such as Gaussian Splatting often must either partner with a university or pay for a mature technical team. - Tao said the hardest part of The Pigeon Ring was describing something that did not yet exist with enough conviction for others to believe in it. - Lee said AI can save budget and crew, but it does not save effort. - The Pigeon Ring used about 300 cameras around rehearsed live performances to reconstruct a Chinese family home that audiences can walk through. - Zhang said the workflow became closer to theatre than film, with no cutting points and long takes lasting two or three minutes. - Tao said the team had to build the pipeline from scratch. - Tao expects AI will eventually lower the camera requirement, from 300 today to perhaps 20 or 12. - Tasca said technology does not compensate for institutions, rights or laws. - Tasca said that when rights are not codified in law, outcomes depend on personal clout and family background. - Tasca cited EO as an example, saying the film grossed more than $1 million in the U.S. while its producers collectively received around $30,000. - Tasca said the producers took all the risk and that model has to change. - Tasca said a digital image of EO does not have agency, while the film's donkeys did. - Tasca said immersive work creates an emotional architecture, while films create emotion in sequences. - Tasca advised young creators to learn traditional skills first, then apply new tools. - Tasca defined democratization as everybody having the right to be heard. - Cao said democratization depends on who controls funding, who has access to expertise and infrastructure, who remains protected, and which audiences can encounter the work. - ANFFF says it receives entries from around 70 countries and territories each year and works with more than 50 charities worldwide. - ANFFF describes itself as the flagship non-profit film and cultural programme of International Nature Bond CIC, a UK Community Interest Company. - MIMAOKU describes itself as a China-UK cultural and media company with offices in Shanghai and the United Kingdom.

Between the lines: - The forum's message was that access to software is no longer the main gatekeeper; capital, labor, legal structure and institutional backing are. - The examples also showed that advanced tools can increase complexity, not reduce it, because new formats often require custom pipelines and specialized teams. - Tasca's comments shifted the argument from creative possibility to economic fairness, especially for producers who take financial risk but see limited upside. - Cao's closing point suggested that democratization is a systems problem, not a device problem.

What's next: - ANFFF will accept additional submissions for 2027 through FilmFreeway. - The festival will continue assembling its first-round international jury. - The broader conversation around AI, immersive media and access is likely to remain central as more festivals and producers test these tools.

The bottom line: - Cheaper technology may widen access to making images, but the Venice forum argued that real democratization still depends on money, rights, expertise and who gets paid.