At a BFI America dinner in Hollywood on Monday night, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro accepted the prestigious BFI Fellowship and issued an urgent warning about the future of film. He told the industry crowd that the encroachment of artificial intelligence and business consolidation is pushing the medium toward what he called "cinema illiteracy."
The threat of AI to human expression
Del Toro described artificial intelligence as "natural stupidity." He said, "We are on the verge of image illiteracy. We are on the verge of cinema illiteracy." For del Toro, the danger is not just technological but spiritual. "The pact between man and image is sacred," he said. "We are told images can be generated by artificial means. The existence of an image is not just to be there. It is to connect us, to make us feel beauty." He traced the human impulse to create back to the first images on cave walls, emphasizing that art can bridge divides at a time of rising political polarization.
A lifetime devoted to film
Del Toro's connection to the BFI stretches back to his teenage years in Guadalajara, when he would write to the institute to request 16mm prints of classic films for his cinema club. Now, as a BFI Fellow, he is entering what he called the "giving back" phase of his life. He plans to teach classes on early Alfred Hitchcock films for the BFI and has pledged to donate one-third of his personal papers and archives to the BFI's National Archive. BFI CEO Ben Roberts called the archive "one of the greatest collections of film in the world."
The bus near the cliff
Del Toro acknowledged the unprecedented reach of modern streaming but insisted the industry must rally around the art form. "Right now, the bus is so close to a cliff, we all have to lean to the right side," he said. The intimate event, attended by Ted Sarandos, Jon Favreau, Bill Hader, and Leonardo DiCaprio, served as a fundraiser for the BFI's Film on Film Festival, which returns to London next June. Roberts noted that the BFI's role extends beyond preservation to shaping policy for the U.K. film industry, ensuring "the conditions are right for success in filmmaking."
Why this matters for creatives
Del Toro's speech was a direct appeal to filmmakers, artists, and designers to protect the human core of their work. As AI tools proliferate, the challenge is to understand their capabilities without ceding the craft itself. For creatives, resources like AI for Creatives can provide context on the technology while reinforcing the irreplaceable value of human vision. The message is clear: hold the gate open for storytelling that connects, not just content that fills a screen.
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