AI-Powered Mobile Experience Brings the Joy Back to Art Galleries

Havas New York and Havas CX launched today its creative advertising campaign for the 27th edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF). The agencies have created work designed to place independent cinema alongside other forms of art pieces. Together with BFF, Havas has developed a platform that pairs still art with award-winning Brooklyn Film Festival movies and, in turn, gives residence to these independent films within some of the world’s most iconic art pieces.

The campaign, titled ‘Art is Better When It Movies,’ includes an interactive mobile experience, films, and out-of-home billboards. The mobile experience takes form as an interactive website where users can take a photo of a piece of art, which will then be matched with a relevant film from the festival’s archive. The AI algorithm, powered by OpenAI, analyses the uploaded work of art based on its themes, colours and motifs to provide an appropriate match. The experience can be found by visiting here.

The team will also roll out OOH billboards and creative spots that feature iconic artwork from galleries around the world. In the two creative spots, we see two protagonists wandering the halls of an art gallery and reimagining pieces of art as a movie. ‘This Modern Love’ transforms ‘The Temptations of St. Anthony’ (C. 1530-1600) by Hieronymus Bosch into a love story, and ‘One Tall, One Small’ interprets art by Sturtevant J. Hamblin titled ‘Sisters in Red’ (C. 1845) to be a horror film. Both spots take a comedic approach to reinforce the Brooklyn Film Festival’s stance that movies are one of the world’s most exciting art forms.

The project follows last year’s 'Stories About Life, by Those Who Have Lived It,' campaign, generated by Brooklyn Film Festival and Havas, which played out the limitations of AI versus human creativity.

“This year, AI is helping to connect different art forms that have, historically, been pinned against each other,” said Dan Lucey, chief creative officer and co-CEO of Havas New York. “As it turns out, AI can help us better connect with art - and each other. We are happy to partner with BFF for another year and showcase their collection of films from around the world.”

This year’s Brooklyn Film Festival theme is Immersion. BFF, a Canadian Screen Award qualifying festival, received 3,351 films - a festival record - from 103 countries. The festival will program the selected films into 42, two-hour program blocks. The 2024 line-up will include 150 total film almost all of which are premieres.

“BFF believes in the truthful spirit of indie filmmakers, and this year we offer the opportunity of a collective immersion, triggered by the film programs, the Q&As at the end of the screenings, the various networking parties, and the infinite chats on social media,” said Marco Ursino, founder and director of Brooklyn Film Festival. “We look forward to share with the filmmakers, the media, and the audience our true hopes and inner dreams. Enjoy the immersion.”

The campaign run in New York City through the conclusion of the Brooklyn Film Festival, which will take place from May 31st to June 9th, 2024. More information can be found on its website here.