Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese (born 1942) is an American filmmaker widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of cinema. A defining figure of the New Hollywood era, he is known for visceral, morally searching films and a restless visual style — Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Departed, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. Few artists have done more to preserve film history, and few carry more authority when they speak about where the medium is headed.

That is what made his 2026 turn toward AI so notable. Scorsese became an advisor to Black Forest Labs, the company behind the FLUX image models, and described using AI-generated storyboards during pre-production. He was careful to frame the technology as an instrument in the director’s hands — a faster way to visualize and share a shot — rather than a substitute for the people who make films.

Coming from cinema’s most prominent traditionalist — a director synonymous with celluloid and the theatrical experience — the endorsement reframed the debate. If the medium’s foremost preservationist sees AI as part of how film evolves, the question shifts from whether the tools belong in filmmaking to how thoughtfully they are used. His move placed him alongside Darren Aronofsky and Steven Soderbergh in a small but growing group of A-list directors engaging with the technology in public.

The guild backlash

The reaction was swift. Within days of the June 2, 2026 announcement — which Black Forest Labs accompanied with a video of Scorsese storyboarding a scene with its FLUX model — the Art Directors Guild Local 800 published an open letter accusing him of “turning his back” on human artists, saying his promotion of a generative AI product “circumvents the input of Art Directors Guild Local 800 art directors, graphic artists, illustrators, production designers, scenic artists, set designers, and other talented Union professionals.” Director Boots Riley speculated publicly that money for his family, not conviction, explained the deal.

Scorsese subsequently held a private call with the Art Directors Guild over the controversy, according to industry reports in July 2026. The episode crystallized the stakes: storyboarding and concept illustration are exactly the crafts guild artists fear generative tools will absorb first, and the endorsement came from the one director whose devotion to film’s traditions had seemed beyond question.