OpenAI is lending its generative AI tools and computing resources to an ambitious experiment: making a feature-length animated movie faster and cheaper than Hollywood’s traditional methods. The result, Critterz, is scheduled to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 before a planned global theatrical release.

The idea for Critterz began in 2023, when Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, started experimenting with the company’s then-new DALL·E image generator. Nelson sketched out the first characters while attempting to make a short film, which resulted in a 2023 short satire that parodied nature documentaries, with woodland creatures rebelling against their passive on-screen roles.

The upcoming feature-length version takes those characters in a new direction: an adventure story in which a community of forest creatures sees its village disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, with James Lamont and Jon Foster — writers behind Paddington in Peru — on board to script the adaptation.

Nelson and Nik Kleverov, co-founder and chief creative officer of Native Foreign, first created Critterz as a short-form film that debuted in 2023 with support from OpenAI. Following that release, OpenAI hired Nelson as a liaison with creators and artists, helping them explore how to use its generative tools in creative projects.

Now, Nelson is leading the full-length production alongside Vertigo Films in London and Native Foreign, the Los Angeles creative agency co-founded by Kleverov.

Details of the project were first reported by the Wall Street Journal and later expanded in the Los Angeles Times.

Hollywood’s animated features typically require three years of production and budgets that can reach $150–200 million. In contrast, Critterz aims to be completed in just nine months with a budget of under $30 million.

The team of around 30 artists and filmmakers is blending traditional and AI-driven workflows. Human artists sketch character and environment concepts, which are then processed through OpenAI’s GPT-5 and image-generation models to produce frames, storyboards, and animation sequences.

While the technology accelerates production, the filmmakers are deliberately anchoring the project in human creativity. Voice casting is underway, and all characters will be performed by professional actors rather than synthetic AI voices.

This choice is both artistic — aiming for emotional authenticity — and legal. Because AI-generated work cannot be copyrighted without human authorship, the inclusion of human voices and hand-drawn sketches strengthens the film’s eligibility for copyright protection. It also directly addresses one of Hollywood’s biggest concerns: that AI voices and performances could replace human actors, an issue that fueled industry-wide strikes in 2023.

“OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it’s much more impactful if someone does it,” said Nelson. “That’s a much better case study than me building a demo.”

The release of Pixar’s Toy Story in 1995 was a watershed for computer animation, transforming it from an experiment into a Hollywood standard. Supporters of Critterz believe it could play a similar role for AI-powered filmmaking.

“There’s been a lot of dabbling, but this shows a commitment from a large AI tool provider that this is possible,” said Nik Kleverov. “By saying that we are embarking on this, I think it can hopefully open the door for more AI projects to also come out, and we can hopefully see a wave of new great storytelling.”

Kleverov noted that the small team includes people from across the entertainment industry — even one who worked on the original Space Jam with Michael Jordan in 1996 — many of whom are experimenting with AI for the first time.

But the project comes amid heated debate. Hollywood guilds have fought for protections against AI, arguing it could displace writers and actors. Studios including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Comcast’s Universal have filed lawsuits against AI company Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement.

“The last thing I want them to think about is AI,” said Nik Kleverov of audiences watching Critterz. “I know the AI will always be a topic, but I think we’re going to see a revolution of independent cinema because you’re going to be able to tell so many more stories.”

Whether audiences embrace Critterz remains uncertain, especially as box office attendance faces broader challenges. Still, for OpenAI, success would show its technology can deliver commercially viable content strong enough for the big screen.

“I have never been in this position in my life where we are starting a movie and I have no idea what’s about to happen,” said James Richardson, co-founder of Vertigo Films. “It’s a very ambitious massive experiment.”

AiNews has followed Critterz since its early stages. We first met Nik Kleverov at the Ai4 conference in 2024, where he discussed Native Foreign’s experiments with AI storytelling.

In early 2025, AiNews reported on the project’s expansion from a short into a longer film. At that stage, Native Foreign partnered with the writers of Paddington in Peru to deepen the narrative and refine the story arc. The article highlighted how Critterz was moving beyond its experimental roots and taking early steps toward becoming a feature-length production.

That milestone set the stage for today’s news: a full-length version of Critterz, produced with OpenAI’s tools, heading to Cannes 2026.

Q: What is Critterz?
A: Critterz is an AI-animated feature film about woodland creatures whose village is disrupted by a mysterious stranger. It builds on a 2023 AI short and will debut at Cannes 2026.

Q: Who is behind the film?
A: The project was created by Chad Nelson of OpenAI and is being produced with Vertigo Films (UK) and Native Foreign (US), co-founded by Nik Kleverov.

Q: How long will it take to make?
A: The feature is being completed in nine months, compared to Hollywood’s typical three-year timeline for animated films.

Q: Why are human voices important?
A: All characters will be voiced by human actors, a choice that ensures emotional authenticity and strengthens the film’s copyright eligibility.

Q: Why is Critterz significant?
A: Supporters believe it could be a turning point for AI filmmaking, similar to how Toy Story legitimized computer animation in the 1990s.

The evolution of Critterz — from a 2023 short to a 2025 expansion to a 2026 Cannes premiere — illustrates the rapid acceleration of AI filmmaking. By combining generative models with human artistry, the project is testing whether a feature film can be made faster, cheaper, and with smaller teams while still delivering theatrical quality. Crucially, it is doing so without replacing humans — relying on artists to design the sketches and actors to voice the characters, with AI used to augment rather than erase those contributions.

For OpenAI, it is a high-profile experiment designed to prove the creative power of its technology. For the film industry, Critterz represents a test of whether AI can become a new production model. However audiences respond, the project is already opening the door to new creative workflows — and signaling that AI and human artistry may have a shared future on the big screen.

Either way, when Critterz arrives at Cannes in 2026, it will mark the moment AI filmmaking stepped directly onto cinema’s global stage.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiroo’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.