On June 22, 2026, Google DeepMind announced a $75 million investment in A24, the independent studio behind Everything Everywhere All At Once, Hereditary, and more recently, Backrooms. The deal is structured as a research partnership: DeepMind's researchers will work directly inside A24's production process to build AI tools shaped by working filmmakers, with A24's creative staff providing feedback at every stage.
The specific tools being built are not fully disclosed. What's been confirmed is that the near-term focus is on AI-generated storyboards — a pre-production step where AI assistance is least controversial and most practically useful. A24's Scott Belsky was careful to distance the project from the kind of prompted image generation that draws the most criticism: "These won't look anything like the prompted generation type of AI that people feel uncomfortable with."
The structure of the deal matters. DeepMind gets access to A24's production workflow and its roster of collaborating directors and writers. Google gets early signal on what useful filmmaking AI actually looks like when developed alongside people doing the work rather than applied to it afterward. A24 gets tools and infrastructure built to its own specifications, plus the investment. Critically, the deal is non-exclusive and does not give Google access to A24's content library or its IP.
The context for this deal is an industry under pressure. Netflix's acquisition of InterPositive (Ben Affleck's AI filmmaking company) and Amazon MGM's internal AI production unit established that streaming giants are moving aggressively into AI tooling. A24, which has built its brand on artistic independence and director-led films, is making a bet that its approach — AI as collaborator rather than replacement — can coexist with and reinforce that identity rather than erode it.
Whether that bet holds will depend on what the tools actually do. Right now, the partnership is early enough that neither party has had to answer hard questions about creative credit, labor displacement, or what happens when the tools become capable of more than storyboarding. Those questions will come — and A24's answer to them will define whether this was a principled move or a capitulation dressed up in careful language.
For the AI industry, the deal represents something more immediate: Google DeepMind making its first direct equity investment in a Hollywood film studio, and doing so through a research partnership framed around what artists actually want rather than what the technology can currently produce. It is a different kind of pitch for AI in creative industries — and A24, of all studios, is the right test for whether it lands.