Luca Guadagnino’s film Artificial has been announced as one of the Galas at the BFI London Film Festival.
The biographical comedy drama film stars Andrew Garfield as OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman, who was fired and then rehired by the company he co-founded in 2023.
The cast also features Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, and Cooper Hoffman.
It has now been revealed the film will screen at the upcoming 70th BFI London Film Festival on October 11, with its stars also expected to attend the event.
A synopsis for the film teases: “Artificial chronicles the incredibly consequential days leading up to the sudden firing and reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI, as the fate of who gets to control the technology at the centre of an AI arms race hangs in the balance.”
Artificial was dropped by its original distributor, Amazon MGM Studios, earlier this summer due to an investment Amazon had made in Open AI.
It was later announced that Neon, the production studio behind Oscar-winning films Anora and Parasite, would release the movie.
Guadagnino, 55, is best known for 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, 2024’s Challengers and After The Hunt, which was released last year and also starred Garfield.
The British actor recently spoke to Esquire UK about playing the tech entrepreneur and said: “With Sam, everything’s a game. It’s a game and everything gets very, very simple. It’s, ‘I know I have to win this game, because I am the most ‘good’ person, and if I don’t win this game, Elon Musk wins this game’.”
Garfield said he did not know Altman and had never met him, with his portrayal based on what was in the script, court transcripts, interviews and research.
He added: “We were telling a story, but I think anyone who takes on that level of responsibility for a company or a technology that you know is going to do a hell of a lot of damage to the soul of humanity (must have) a certain ability to disassociate.”
He also stars in Artificial alongside his partner Barbaro, 36, who told InStyle Magazine last month that Garfield was “one of the best actors of his generation”.
The actress, who plays the tech giant’s chief technology officer Mira Murati, said: “I just learned a lot from his approach to the material and to developing character, and I felt very fortunate to get to witness that in real time.
“I really have to step up my game and make sure I’m a proper, legitimate scene partner.”
The screening of Artificial at the BFI London Film Festival will come days after the film has its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 5.
The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs from October 7-18.
The full festival programme will be revealed on September 2, with tickets on general sale from September 17, with BFI Members able to book early.
