And The Award For Best Film Goes To...
Can AI and algorithms win the most prestigious awards?
In a recent Hollywood Reporter piece (May 20, 2025), Maer Roshan sits down with Barry Diller—the man whose five-decade run has shaped Hollywood’s very DNA. I’ll leave the biographical deep dive to cultural critics; what fascinates me is Diller’s take on new media and AI.
I opened my last column by calling AI “just an algorithm that sucks the heart out of creation”—turning everything into the same gray blur. Then here’s Diller, echoing my exact worry about uniformity: the “tech bros” running studios care only about screen time, not the lasting resonance of a truly great film. Those summers when one movie could dominate water-cooler talk? He says they’re gone.
When it comes to publishing, he’s even more blunt: more content ≠ more quality. It’s a race toward volume, and value gets trampled in the stampede. So Diller is on a mission to give his brands a distinct voice—an image and substance that keeps readers coming back. I admire that optimism. After watching media evolve—from the studio golden age to the streaming arms race—he still bets on creativity, even when it falters or tanks.
I won’t speculate what happens in his back-room meetings—whether algorithms argue the case or spreadsheets waggle with data insights proclaiming “safe bets.” But this interview left me relieved: the creative spark hasn’t been entirely exiled…yet.
Then a thought hit: in a few years, will we be profiling ChatGPT 10.5 on its Oscar-bait script? Absurd as it seems, with algorithms predicting our every desire—why couldn’t AI craft the next blockbuster and cast the perfect ensemble? Or maybe we start slower - and the next award category will be “Best Use of AI In A Feature Film?”
It’s an emotional seesaw: I crave the new frontier yet long for the simpler days when art was messy and unpredictable. We can’t rewind the clock, nor should we. But as we rocket forward, are we risking something meaningful in the process?
And as I continue my journey and thought exploration, I find this Echo Hunter - Official BTS Trailer. You can see the trailer here—> youtube.com/watch?v=vubgCqWBRts&ab_channel=KavantheKid
What do you think?
from the studio golden age to the streaming arms race—he still bets on creativity, even when it falters or tanks.
And he said this with a straight face?
They stopped caring about worrying about creativity when the priority was to reboot / remake every film and TV show within the past 40 years rather than try to come up with new ideas.
As far as the arms race. Just replace streaming arms race with AI arms race.