The Writers Guild of America East has withdrawn its sponsorship and participation from the 30th edition of the Urbanworld Film Festival, ending a 12-year partnership over the New York festival’s decision to incorporate AI-generated films into its official programming. The move has created a new flashpoint in Hollywood’s increasingly contentious debate over artificial intelligence and independent filmmaking.
As we previously reported, Urbanworld founder and CEO Stacy Spikes announced UrbanworldAI, a new initiative developed in partnership with The New School that will screen AI-generated films and shorts, host technology demonstrations and pair creators with AI tools as part of the festival’s official programming. The festival, which turns 30 this October and runs October 14 through 18 in New York, has served as an early platform for filmmakers including Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Nia DaCosta and Cord Jefferson since its founding in 1997.
Spikes told Variety he learned of the guild’s decision through a forwarded email before reaching out to request a phone call. The WGA East ultimately stood by its withdrawal. “Given a 10-year relationship, you don’t want it to go up in flames like that,” Spikes said.
His concern goes beyond the lost sponsorship. Spikes believes the move sets a troubling precedent about who gets to determine which tools independent filmmakers are allowed to use. “The danger is for people to start to tell creators what tools they can and cannot use is a very slippery slope,” he told Variety. “I think that’s a very hard thing to try and push down on the filmmaking community.”
The WGA East has been among Hollywood’s most vocal critics of generative AI, launching its #AINeedsHumans campaign and making AI protections a central issue in its 2023 strike negotiations with studios. The guild declined to comment on its decision or make anyone available for an interview.
Spikes says he respects the guild’s role in protecting writers but believes a film festival has a different responsibility. Urbanworld’s AI initiative is not designed to tell filmmakers what to do with the technology but to ensure they are not excluded from a conversation that is already reshaping the industry. AI-generated films will be judged not on technical sophistication but on the emotional impact of their storytelling.
“How they make their movies is not something we have a dog in that fight,” Spikes said. “We don’t care one way or the other, but we do feel there’s a responsibility that when there’s emerging technologies and filmmakers are starting to use it, we try and bring panelists and speakers and people to present both sides of the story.”
Urbanworld is not alone in navigating this debate. Tribeca partnered with OpenAI on a year-long program supporting filmmakers creating live-action works incorporating emerging technologies, with the resulting films premiering as part of its 2026 programming. Tribeca also screened the 75-minute AI-generated feature Dreams of Violets as a special event. Cannes, by contrast, has taken a more restrictive stance, banning AI-generated films from its official competition.
For Spikes, the stakes are particularly high for the communities Urbanworld serves. He worries that if emerging Black and multicultural filmmakers are steered away from AI tools, they risk falling behind as the technology becomes more accessible globally. “Why wouldn’t you want filmmakers to be aware of tools?” he said. “It would be irresponsible to say to certain communities, ‘Don’t look over here.'”
And despite the fracture, Spikes says he wants the guilds at the table, not absent from it. “There’s young kids right now that are playing with this technology that when they get slightly older, you remove your influence if you’ve walked away from the conversation,” he said. “Don’t walk away from those conversations.”
The WGA East’s withdrawal did not affect other sponsors. Urbanworld has not revealed its full sponsorship list for this year’s festival. Past sponsors have included HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and the Directors Guild of America.
Spikes is also the co-founder and CEO of MoviePass, the movie ticket subscription company he took over in 2021.