Can AI-Free Films Become an Online Powerhouse? Justine Bateman Thinks So (Exclusive)

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Justine Bateman’s no-AI film festival is going streaming.

The Credo 23 Film Festival, the gathering Bateman launched last year devoted to handmade human work, will now make its films available via a digital “room” through July 10 at RoomC23.com, Bateman says. Any consumer interested in its offerings can buy a “key” to the room for $40 and watch an unlimited amount of work.

Among the titles are a diverse array of shorts that played the fest; features like the Lukas Haas-starring Crystal Gross and Bateman’s own David Duchovny-toplined feature Feel; and special talks with the likes of Sean Baker, Reed Morano and Matthew Weiner, all of whom support Bateman’s human-centric mission. Some 44 films and events are available in all.

“For audiences who weren’t able to make it to the Credo 23 Film Festival, we want to bring our highly-curated collection of accepted films, finalists, panels and Q&As straight to them,” Bateman tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The “no-AI” festival, which held its second edition in Hollywood last month with sponsors like Kodak, is dedicated to the premise that “Generative AI has no place in filmmaking — based on stolen work, it only regurgitates the past.” Many of the screened works have the raw vibe of early Sundance projects. The festival also gives all profits to filmmakers in the form of grants for future projects.

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While Hollywood is filled with creatives talking about how to take a stand against the automation of art, Bateman is among the few launching a business and organization around it. The digital room grows out of both the festival and Credo 23, her three-year-old organization that certifies that a film contains no AI.

Bateman’s philosophy is that, as AI tools become more prevalent at every level of filmmaking, audiences will at first thirst for, but eventually tire of, such automation, especially as the ease of filmmaking leads to higher mountains of slop.

She hopes to build, she tells THR, “a tunnel through the current distraction of ‘volume content’ and the near absence of curation.” 

Audiences, she says, “deserve to be entertained with dedicated, high-quality, human filmmaking efforts.”

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