Sam Altman, OpenAI Movie Filmed in San Francisco Finds a New Home After Amazon Drop

Artificial stars Andrew Garfield as the controversial founder and details his firing and immediate rehiring days later as San Francisco-based OpenAI chief executive. The movie generated curiosity in the Bay Area after residents spotted filming throughout the city — with scenes shot near Dolores Park, Coit Tower and Stable Cafe in the city’s Mission District – with actors like Jason Schwartzman.

According to Deadline, Guadagnino described San Francisco on an Italian television show as “a wonderful city.”

“One of the great, distinguished U.S. cities, Alfred Hitchcock’s city — a place of great beauty,” he said. “But also great despair, with so many homeless people, so many people living under the influence of fentanyl, while these wonderful, silent, self-driving cars glided past them.”

The director added that those contrasts illustrate the film’s theme.

“It is a disturbing image — more than just disturbing,” he said.

Amazon did not reply to KQED’s request for a statement by the time of publication. Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Amazon said, “We believe that ‘Artificial’ will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.”

Amazon has had a years-long partnership with Guadagnino and has distributed his past films, including tennis drama Challengers in 2024 starring Oakland actress Zendaya and horror-remake Suspiria in 2018 starring Dakota Johnson. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Guadagnino also said on the Italian network show that, “I can’t say much because we are right in the middle of this situation … [but] these are industrial policies that are certainly not new.”

Guadagnino also expressed his concern over how AI consumption habits are changing “the very face of the identity of a place like the United States and the entire world.”

In the Tuesday statement, Neon said Artificial was bought during a bidding process. The company also announced that it will “compete in this year’s Oscar race.” Neon was also the distributor behind Best Picture Oscar winners like Anora and Parasite, as well as Oakland director Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters.

OpenAI did not respond to KQED’s request for comment.