Why ‘Critterz’ Is The Real Test Of AI Filmmaking

BusinessMediaWhy ‘Critterz’ Is The Real Test Of AI FilmmakingByMaureen Kerr,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Maureen Kerr covers AI, media and entertainment economics.Follow AuthorMay 26, 2026, 05:26pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Critterz first-look footage presented to Studios, streamers and all major international distributors at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. (Image: Courtesy of Critterz Film Ltd.)Critterz Film LtdThe most useful question about Critterz is not whether artificial intelligence can make a movie. It is whether a movie made with AI can survive the ordinary tests of filmmaking: character, story, taste, iteration, deadlines, buyers, audiences and the judgment of people who have seen technological promises come and go before.That is where Critterz becomes interesting.The animated family feature began as a 2023 viral short by Chad Nelson, a creative strategist at OpenAI, and has grown into a full-length film directed and co-produced by Nik Kleverov, with Nelson serving as creator and co-producer and a script by Paddington in Peru writers Jon Foster and James Lamont.Critterz is also the first full production run of Woven, the AI-assisted production system developed during the making of the film and now being positioned for use beyond this one project.Kleverov’s background sits at the intersection of design and emerging technology: his Emmy-nominated work on the Narcos title sequence for Netflix, and the Toys“R”Us spot widely credited as the first AI-generated commercial brand film, produced at Native Foreign, the Los Angeles studio he co-founded and where Nelson made the original Critterz short.In other words, Critterz is not only a film. It is a production argument.MORE FOR YOUThe Cannes TestThat argument was taken to Cannes this month, not to the festival’s main competition—which bars AI as a principal authoring t...