It was recently reported that Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming drama, Artificial, was abruptly dropped from its initial distributor — Amazon MGM. Directed by Guadagnino, the film stars Andrew Garfield as OpenAI founder Sam Altman, with the movie reportedly serving as a The Social Network-style drama about the rise of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. Altman is said to be depicted in a non-sympathetic light. Amazon, of course, is owned by Jeff Bezos, who has maintained close ties to the White House, releasing the widely panned Melania Trump biopic earlier this year. Altman also has ties to the current administration, prompting raised eyebrows about why the film was dropped—especially given that Amazon announced plans to invest a whopping $50 billion in OpenAI back in February.
While many wondered where the film would end up, in the end, NEON decided to add it to their jam-packed 2026 awards slate, which contains Cannes hits Fjord and Paper Tiger, as well as the Korean sci-fi action flick, Hope. In their release, they specified that Artificial will compete in the awards season this year, putting rest to claims it would be held for 2027.
Netflix and Focus pass
Artificial screened extensively for distributors over the last few weeks, but its contentious subject matter made studios gun shy to pick it up. According to The Hollywood Reporter, two studios — Netflix and Focus Features — passed on the opportunity to distribute the movie. A24, which is a company that has taken risks with projects, reportedly screened the film, but were never in serious consideration. For a while, it looked like it would end up at Mubi, but NEON is a strong home, with their awards pedigree top-shelf, having released the 2025 Best Picture winner, Anora.
Artificial is now expected to make its debut at a major fall festival, potentially Venice or TIFF.
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