There’s something undeniably magical about going to the movies—one moment you’re in your seat, the next you’re swept away to realities that feel as vivid as your own memories. That’s never felt truer than with Ancestra, a new film that takes cinematic storytelling somewhere fresh, blending hands-on artistry with technology on the bleeding edge.
To make Ancestra, acclaimed directors Darren Aronofsky and Eliza McNitt brought together a creative powerhouse: over 200 artists, technologists, and craftspeople, all working in step. The film’s story is inspired by Eliza’s own dramatic birth—a near-death experience she experienced as an infant—woven together with themes of birth, ancestry, and the personal cosmos that connects generations. But what sets Ancestra apart from any film before it isn’t just its subject; it’s the toolkit the team used to bring it to life. Enter Veo, an AI video generation model that, for this production, became something akin to a creative collaborator, not just a piece of software humming away behind the scenes.
Veo doesn’t just follow orders. It ‘reads’ natural language prompts—turning descriptions, memories, and even emotions into full-blown cinematic visuals. For Ancestra, that meant giving shape to images usually stuck in the imagination: the swirl of family memory, the fragile awe of a newborn’s first breath, the cosmic scope of love and connection. Sometimes, these scenes are breathtakingly real; other times, they’re dreamlike and poetic. The film toggles seamlessly between live-action footage and generated imagery, creating a viewing experience where the boundaries of reality, memory, and imagination blur.
But the process wasn’t just about feeding prompts into a computer and letting it do the heavy lifting. Artists, animators, and VFX supervisors pored over every frame—merging AI-generated visuals with live-action shots, drawing inspiration from family archives, and layering everything with a sense of meaning and emotion. Far from replacing human creativity, technology here acted as an amplifier: it opened up new ways for artists to express what’s deeply personal and universally resonant, but always with a human’s hand guiding the vision.
What does a film like Ancestra say about where movies are headed? It’s a glimpse at a new kind of storytelling—where filmmakers shape advanced tools rather than merely using them, and where technology becomes a bridge to more intimate, profound stories. As Veo lent itself to the creative process, it helped the team animate visuals that were not just futuristic or flashy, but raw and authentic to Eliza McNitt’s own lived experience.
Some worry that AI might strip art of its soul. Yet in this project, the opposite happened. Technology enriched the storytelling, letting human emotion and authorship shine through in new ways. As for what’s next, one thing feels certain: the possibilities are just beginning to unfold, limited only by the reach of human imagination.
Curious to see more? You can dig deeper into the making of Ancestra and how Veo helped shape its vision on DeepMind’s blog: Behind Ancestra: Combining Veo with Live-Action Filmmaking.
This website uses cookies.