Sora shutdown leaves Critterz at the Cannes market without its model

Critterz, an OpenAI-backed animated feature intended as a mainstream generative AI pipeline proof, missed its targeted Cannes in-festival premiere. The film reached the Cannes market, where AGC screened first-look footage to international buyers, but did not secure the planned festival debut. Production was affected because the video model used for sequence generation was no longer available in usable form after OpenAI shut down Sora. Sora’s consumer app declined and the service was taken offline, with the web and app experience ending in April and the API scheduled to follow later. The feature adapts a 2023 short made with DALL-E and early Sora, with a human-led but AI-assisted production brief and a budget under $30m.

"Critterz, the OpenAI-backed animated feature that was being positioned as the first mainstream commercial film made through a generative AI pipeline, has missed its planned Cannes debut, according to Bloomberg. The project, produced by AGC International, London-based Vertigo Films and AI specialist Native Foreign, did make it to the Cannes market this week, where AGC has been screening first-look footage to international buyers, but it did not land the in-festival premiere the producers had targeted."

"Part of the explanation is the tool the film was built on no longer exists in usable form. OpenAI shut down Sora in March, after the consumer app peaked at roughly a million users, collapsed below half that, and burned through about $1m a day in compute. The web and app experience went dark on 26 April, with the API set to follow on 24 September. Critterz, which had been built across OpenAI's full creative stack, including Sora for sequence generation, lost a meaningful part of its production pipeline mid-flight."

"The film itself is a feature-length adaptation of a 2023 short Chad Nelson made at OpenAI using DALL-E and early Sora. Nelson is producing on the feature alongside Vertigo's Allan Niblo and James Richardson, with Nik Kleverov of Native Foreign directing. The script is by Lamont, Foster and Butterworth, working from a brief that called for a "human-led but AI-assisted" production. The stated budget sits under $30m, and the team had publicly aimed to deliver the film in roughly nine months rather than the three years a comparable traditional animation would take."

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