Google DeepMind teams up with A24 on AI filmmaking tools

Google DeepMind’s pact with A24 is less a glamourous studio tie-up than a test of who gets to control AI in Hollywood. The multiyear research collaboration pairs Google’s models and infrastructure with a company known for giving directors unusual freedom, while keeping A24 filmmakers in charge of how the tools are used and what they are allowed to change.

Google is investing about $75 million in A24 as part of the deal, its first investment in a movie studio. The companies said the work is aimed at building AI-powered filmmaking tools that could change how projects are developed, not at handing machines ownership of the final cut. A24 filmmakers will help shape the tools, and they will retain full creative control.

That structure matters because it draws a bright line between experimentation and exploitation. The agreement is not an intellectual property or data-training deal, and Google will not get access to A24’s content library or its data. In return, A24 will gain access to DeepMind’s research, infrastructure and global reach, giving the studio a pipeline into one of the world’s most advanced AI labs without surrendering its archives. The companies are pitching the work as a way to develop new workflows and techniques for filmmakers, not as a shortcut to cheaper or faster output.

Scott Belsky said the point is to preserve creative control and support risk-taking, a framing that places artists, not software vendors, at the center of the deal. Eli Collins said breakthroughs happen when technology reaches top minds in the field, underscoring Google’s bet that the best AI tools will be built with direct input from working filmmakers rather than imposed from outside the industry.

The timing puts the partnership into a Hollywood market already splitting between litigation and cooperation. Disney has sued AI companies including MiniMax and Midjourney while also pursuing AI-related character licensing. Lionsgate has expanded its partnership with Runway AI, and Netflix bought Ben Affleck’s AI startup InterPositive earlier in 2026. Against that backdrop, A24 has become the clearest test case for whether AI can be folded into production without weakening the leverage of directors, writers and other creative workers.

A24’s own brand is central to the bet. The studio’s reputation for backing filmmakers on titles such as Lady Bird, Moonlight, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Marty Supreme and Backrooms makes it an unusually credible laboratory for AI tools built to augment human judgment. If the collaboration works, it could shift power inside studios more than it changes what audiences see on screen.