--- title: "Sora shutdown leaves Critterz at the Cannes market without its model" url: https://daily.dev/posts/sora-shutdown-leaves-critterz-at-the-cannes-market-without-its-model-51mvs1hoj source_url: https://thenextweb.com/news/critterz-misses-cannes-openai-sora-shutdown type: article source: "The Next Web" published: 2026-05-22T10:12:16.288Z updated: 2026-06-25T02:16:23.409Z tags: ["ai-video-generation", "genai", "openai", "sora"] reading_time: 3 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Sora shutdown leaves Critterz at the Cannes market without its model **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Critterz, an OpenAI-backed animated feature billed as the first mainstream film built on a generative AI pipeline, missed its planned Cannes in-festival premiere. A key reason is that OpenAI shut down Sora in March — the video model central to the film's production pipeline — leaving the project without its core tooling mid-production. The web and app experience went dark on April 26, with the API set to follow in September. The film did appear at the Cannes market with first-look footage for buyers, but the in-festival debut that would have validated the 'AI-made movie' pitch did not happen. OpenAI has reportedly pivoted its video research toward world-simulation for robotics. Critterz producers have not disclosed what tooling replaced Sora, and Cannes 2027 is now the likely next window — though by then multiple other contenders may claim the 'first AI feature' title. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#ai-video-generation](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-video-generation), [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#sora](https://daily.dev/tags/sora) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/sora-shutdown-leaves-critterz-at-the-cannes-market-without-its-model-51mvs1hoj)