Neon Acquires Guadagnino's 'Artificial' for Oscar Race
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- Amazon MGM Studios dropped "Artificial" from its slate, a decision that landed just months after it struck a $50 billion partnership with OpenAI in February; Amazon insists the subject matter had nothing to do with its decision, though Hollywood and social media read it otherwise.
- Neon closed a deal to acquire the film and confirmed a qualifying release for this year's Oscar race, adding it to a crowded slate that includes Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner "Fjord," James Gray's "Paper Tiger," and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's "All of a Sudden."
- Written by Simon Rich, the film dramatizes the 2023 weekend Sam Altman was fired and rehired at OpenAI, with Andrew Garfield as Altman, Monica Barbaro as former CTO Mira Murati, Yura Borisov as former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk.
- Focus Features, Warner Bros.' Clockwork, A24, Netflix, and Mubi all screened the film after Amazon's exit and passed; A24 is backed by Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital, which holds a board seat and ranks among OpenAI's largest and most high-profile backers.
- Industry sources who've seen an unfinished cut running over two hours describe the film as "Guadagnino's answer to 'The Social Network'" and his "best in nearly a decade," with Garfield's Altman turn called "solid" and "surprising" in a "campy" film.
- The film reportedly paints Altman as a "pathological liar" and Musk as a "villain," drawing explicit parallels to "The Apprentice" — Sebastian Stan's Trump origin story that scared off distributors before Briarcliff stepped in and earned Stan a best actor Oscar nomination.
Why it matters: Neon just picked up what multiple sources call Guadagnino's best work in nearly a decade — and a likely awards contender every major buyer, including A24, passed on. A24's hesitation traces directly to Thrive Capital's board seat at OpenAI, making this the rare case where the same financial ties scaring off Hollywood distributors are themselves part of the story. For Guadagnino, who hasn't earned an Oscar nomination since producing 2017's "Call Me by Your Name" and watched "Challengers" ($96 million gross), "Queer," and "After the Hunt" all come up empty, a strong run would end a decade of snubs.
