Mad Max Director George Miller Sees AI as the Next Great Creative Revolution and Supports Australia's AI Film Festival
Australia recently launched OMNI, the country’s first-ever artificial intelligence film festival, and it didn’t just catch the attention of tech enthusiasts, it convinced George Miller, the mastermind behind Mad Max, that AI might just spark the next big creative revolution in filmmaking.
While Guillermo del Toro was shouting “F**k AI” to a cheering New York crowd during the premiere of his Frankenstein adaptation, Miller was halfway across the world, exploring how artificial intelligence could open new doors for cinematic storytelling rather than close them.
After four decades building the chaotic, dusty universe of Mad Max, Miller isn’t afraid of a future where machines can reimagine his wastelands in seconds. In fact, he’s fascinated by it.
His curiosity led him to join the jury of OMNI, a new AI-focused film festival created by Travis Rice, an immersive tech specialist at the University of New South Wales, and Aryeh Sternberg, a tech exec at Radmis.
The pair launched OMNI in collaboration with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga VFX artist Yan Chen, who helped host the first screenings right inside Miller’s office. That early glimpse was enough to pull him in deeper, Miller agreed to lead judging for the festival’s first full edition, which took place this week.
According to Rice and Sternberg, Miller also reached out to several AI filmmakers directly, eager to learn how they worked and to share his storytelling wisdom.
“Not everyone is as open-minded as George,” Sternberg said. Rice added, “George is looking to the future and looking to understand these tools. His test when we were judging was: ‘I’m not thinking about how it was created, [it’s whether] I want to know what happens next.’”
The inaugural OMNI festival drew 400 entries from around the world, all culminating in a showcase that celebrated the blending of art and algorithm. The top honor is called the Mirror Award, and went to The Cinema That Never Was, a short film by Berlin-based AI filmmaker Mark Wachholz.
Using dreamlike, cinematic imagery, Wachholz’s film imagines movies that were never made, a reflection on creativity, nostalgia, and the infinite possibilities of storytelling.
“It’s a love letter to the power and aesthetics of cinema, especially to what we’d now call classical cinema,” Wachholz said. He explained that AI has given him the freedom to tell stories that would have once been impossible due to budget or technical constraints.
Miller’s support meant a lot to him, especially since Mad Max: Fury Road helped inspire his process. “We’re entering a new phase of filmmaking that is more immediate, more visual, and incredibly empowering,” Wachholz said.
For Miller, the rise of AI filmmaking isn’t something to freak out over or be affraid of, it’s something to explore. He’s compared it to other moments in art history, like the invention of oil paint or photography, when a new tool didn’t destroy an art form but expanded it.
As he previously said, AI has the potential to “make screen storytelling available to anyone who has a calling to it.” That vision of democratized creativity sets him apart from filmmakers like del Toro, who worry that AI could be misused or cheapen the art.
Whether AI turns out to be a tool for innovation or exploitation remains to be seen, but OMNI is hoping to show that when guided by storytellers who care about emotion and craft, AI can be part of a new cinematic language.
It will be interesting to see if any other filmmakers openening start to embrace AI like Miller.
Source: Deadline