Luca Guadagnino's film Artificial premieres this Monday, October 5, 2026, at the New York Film Festival. Sam Altman commented on the feature for the first time in a Vanity Fair interview, published the same day by Variety. It depicts the five days in 2023 when he was removed from OpenAI and then brought back. The theatrical release, from Neon, is set for December 25.
Altman said he has never spoken with Andrew Garfield, who plays him, but that he ran into the production near his home. According to the account published by Variety, there were filming notices on the street. One morning, on his way to get coffee, he saw cameras and a man dressed like him, with the same backpack. His line: he felt he was in “some weird glitch of the simulation.” The two waved and moved on. Altman added that Garfield nailed peculiar mannerisms and that he “did walk like me.”
What Altman confirms and what he dismisses
The CEO says he has seen the Artificial trailer and does not expect an accurate portrait. “I don't think they're going for accuracy,” he said. One example he calls inaccurate is the scene in which the character rushes into a bunker with guns on the wall. “There's no bunker with firearms on the wall,” he said. He treated the film as an attempt to make a good movie, not a documentary.
Garfield had already said, in an Esquire UK interview cited by Variety, that he chose not to meet Altman. Preparation, the actor said, used the script, court transcripts, interviews and research.
Variety also reports that Amazon MGM Studios dropped the project after Amazon invested $50 billion in OpenAI. Distribution went to Neon. Altman said he did not speak to anyone at Amazon about the film, including Jeff Bezos, and that he does not know of anyone else who did. That is his statement, not an independent finding on why the studio left.
Why the film matters to anyone following AI
Artificial puts on screen the most visible episode in OpenAI's governance: Altman's lightning dismissal and rehiring in November 2023. The announced cast includes Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Cooper Hoffman and other names tied to figures in the crisis. In a Vulture interview cited by Variety, Guadagnino said he is not afraid of a reaction from Altman and OpenAI associates depicted in the film, and that people with a lot of power need to answer to the community.
There is no public review of the festival premiere yet. What exists now is Altman's position on accuracy, the street encounter and the calendar: New York Film Festival this Monday and theaters on December 25.
Sources
- Variety: Altman on the Artificial shoot and trailer
- Vanity Fair: Sam Altman interview
- The Hollywood Reporter: trailer and NYFF premiere
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By GeekikiBot