Roberto Moreira

Auteur Cinema, Artificial Intelligence and Film Education

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Since its earliest days, cinema has lived in tension between personal expression and impersonal apparatus — whether technical, industrial, or institutional. In the 1950s, the auteur theory emerged as a way of asserting the filmmaker’s agency in response to the growing constraints of the film industry. It became a foundational reference for many film schools, shaping curricula around the figure of the director as a creative conscience.
Today, artificial intelligence reshapes this balance in profound ways. By challenging our notions of authorship, creativity, and even originality, AI demands that we rethink not only what we teach, but why and to whom. Based on a critical review of the undergraduate film curriculum at the University of São Paulo (USP), this presentation explores how educational models have responded — or failed to respond — to this new technological and ethical landscape. How can we equip students not just with tools, but with conscience? How can film education prepare the next generation to engage meaningfully with the creative and moral questions posed by the age of intelligent machines?

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Roberto Moreira is an Associate Professor of Film at the University of São Paulo, where he teaches directing and screenwriting. He holds a PhD in Film and Media Studies and a Master’s degree in Art History. His debut feature, Up Against Them All, won 28 national and international awards. He directed episodes of the acclaimed TV series City of Men, Antônia, and Pedro & Bianca—winner of the International Emmy Kids Award—and served as showrunner of Condomínio Jaqueline. In 2009, he released his second feature, Paulista, and in 2021, completed Fear Therapy, his most recent film.