James Gray Ain't Buying the AI Hype—and He's Just Getting Started

James Gray's not interested in chasing what's hot. At a festival where they just handed him a lifetime achievement award—which he basically called an "old man's prize"—the filmmaker made it clear: he's not worried about being "new" or riding trends, and he damn sure isn't sold on AI.

Gray's perspective is grounded. "Fresh" doesn't automatically mean better, he explained. The pressure to constantly innovate, to adopt every new tool, misses the whole point of why people make movies in the first place. It's about saying something real, not just doing something nobody's seen before.

What's striking is his mindset going forward. Despite being over three decades into a serious career—with films like The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra on his resume—Gray feels like he's got unfinished business. He owes the world "one or two truly great movies," he said. Not good ones. Great ones. That's the kind of hunger you don't usually hear from artists at his level.

It's a reminder that the best creators aren't worried about the algorithm or the next shiny technology. They're focused on the work itself.

Read the full story at Variety → https://variety.com/2026/awards/awards/james-gray-ai-locarno-award-paper-tiger-scarlett-johansson-1236828875/