Jodie Foster claims Brad Pitt's Oscar-winning 'F1' was written by AI: 'Wasn't it?'

The claim

During a panel titled 'Who Owns the Future of Hollywood?' at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Jodie Foster suggested that the 2025 film 'F1' appeared to have been made using artificial intelligence. The two-time Oscar winner prefaced her remarks by acknowledging the film's commercial success.

I don't say this disparagingly -- how could I? This movie went on to make millions of dollars. But I look at a movie like F1 and I'm like, 'F1 was made by AI.' Wasn't it?

Foster pointed to the film's formulaic structure and dialogue as evidence. She noted that the narrative followed a textbook three-act structure and that the actors delivered lines in a manner that felt algorithmically optimised.

I mean, the structure was exactly the structure that you would learn in school. The actors say the lines exactly the way it would be written if a computer was writing exactly what would be the right thing for that time.

The film in question

Directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, 'F1' stars Brad Pitt as a Formula One driver returning after a 30-year absence to rescue an underdog team. The film shot racing scenes during actual Grand Prix weekends and grossed $634.1 million worldwide, becoming Pitt's highest-grossing film. It received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won the Oscar for Best Sound.

Apple Original Films and Kosinski have not publicly responded to Foster's comments. Variety and The Independent both reported reaching out for comment.

AI and Hollywood's future

Foster's remarks came during a broader conversation with former Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton about technology's impact on the film industry. She acknowledged that AI could eliminate jobs but argued that unions should ensure fair compensation when actors' likenesses are replicated digitally.

Hopefully, things like unions will be able to come in and say, you can use my actor 20 times, but you're going to pay him 20 times. And I think that's fair.

She expressed a desire for filmmakers to 'dominate' AI tools rather than be replaced by them, suggesting that if the industry can control the technology, it can produce work that reflects human creativity.

Foster's own AI experiment

Foster revealed that her most recent film, the French mystery 'A Private Life' directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, includes a dream sequence generated using AI. She described the result as successful even though the images 'made no sense,' and framed it as an example of how AI can assist in small, helpful tasks like pre-visualisation and storyboarding.