AI in Aotearoa’s Screen Scene: Tool or Threat?

Artificial Intelligence has gone from buzzword to backstage essential in record time. Across New Zealand’s film and TV industry, AI is already cutting edit times, trimming budgets and reshaping how stories are made. But it’s also stirring big questions about what creativity means when machines can help—or replace—the people behind the work.

VFX artists Damon Duncan and Rhys Dippie from Fathom VFX say they’d be mad not to use it. When their team once spent a week erasing rain droplets from a five-second clip, AI now does the same job in a fraction of the time. Duncan says every company in their space is exploring similar shortcuts. For Dippie though, speed has a price. Fewer people, smaller teams, tougher competition. The risk, he says, is that efficiency might edge out artistry.

That tension runs deep through the industry. Screen Auckland’s Matthew Horrocks warns the technology could automate everything from first-draft scripts to sound edits, taking out whole layers of jobs. But he also sees the upside. For small Kiwi productions with big ambition, AI can be a leveller—opening access to tools that once cost millions. It’s a double-edged lens, giving filmmakers more reach while shaking the ground beneath traditional roles.

Director Arthur Machado has already made short films entirely with AI. He’s not afraid of it, but he doesn’t see it as magic either. “AI is not a replacement,” he says. “It’s an addition.” It’s another item in the production toolbox—one that still needs a human hand to steer it.

Not everyone’s convinced. NZ Writers Guild executive director Alice Shearman is worried that unregulated AI could erode copyright and ownership. She says some writers are already being asked to adapt AI-generated scripts, with no guarantee their own work won’t be absorbed into the machine. With the government taking a “wait and see” approach, Shearman believes the industry can’t afford to sit quietly while international territories move faster.

It’s a tricky balancing act for a country that punches above its weight in creativity. New Zealand’s film and television scene has always thrived on innovation, collaboration and heart. AI might be a powerful ally—or a disruptive guest—but either way, it’s here. And like any good story, the ending will depend on how we write it.