ARTOS Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Poland, established as an independent platform supporting the responsible integration of new technologies and artificial intelligence into the film industry. Its aim is to build a network of collaboration in which professionals, producers, educational institutions, industry organizations, and technology companies not only work together, but also co-lead initiatives, share knowledge, and jointly develop new standards for creative and technological collaboration while preserving the values and structures long recognized and cultivated within the film industry.

What the Foundation Is About

The ARTOS Foundation operates at the intersection of art, technology, and education, initiating production, research, and training projects in the field of new media and virtual and generative filmmaking tools. We work according to the idea of a Collaborative Innovation Network: a model in which artists, technologists, institutions, and companies develop knowledge and standards together, and in which leadership of initiatives is contextual and rotational, depending on the competencies required in a given area.

The foundation was established out of the belief that the greatest challenge of the generative era is not simply the emergence of new tools, but the lack of a common language, methodology, and standards of collaboration. For the first time in the history of cinema, images can be generated not only by a camera, but also by algorithms. This means that the principles of image-making, creative responsibility, and the distribution of decision-making must be redefined and rooted in filmmaking practice.

ARTOS responds to this shift not as a technology provider, but as an environment that organizes knowledge, experience, and responsibility around the creative process. It brings together research, education, production implementation, exchange of practices, and legal support into one coherent system, so that innovation does not fragment authorship, but strengthens it.

Rather than concentrating knowledge within a single unit or a single expert voice, the foundation creates conditions for collaboration across departments, professions, and institutions. Directors, cinematographers, producers, production designers, lawyers, educators, and technology partners each contribute different competencies to the process, but they all operate according to the same principles: transparency, responsibility, documentation of creative contribution, and respect for co-authorship.

Mission and Vision

Mission: to empower filmmakers and producers to implement new technologies without losing authorship, quality of collaboration, or responsibility for the image. The goal is not to automate cinema for efficiency’s sake, but to develop working methods that preserve human creative leadership while also allowing budgets to be optimized and the real potential of new tools to be used.

Vision: an environment in which standards for working with AI are co-developed by image-makers together with production, educational, technological, and legal partners, and then tested and refined in real production conditions.

At the center of this vision is the belief that the future of cinema should not be designed exclusively by platforms, tools, or technology providers. It should be co-created by practitioners who bear everyday responsibility for the image, the narrative, the collaboration of the team, and the final shape of the work.

For this reason, ARTOS not only develops its own programs, but builds an environment of continuous, reciprocal exchange of knowledge between partners and across areas of activity. Knowledge generated through research should return to education, production experience should strengthen standards, and legal and organizational conclusions should help structure future implementations. In this way, every action of the foundation feeds the entire ecosystem, rather than only an individual project.

How It Works

The ARTOS Foundation model is built on five pillars which together form a complete infrastructure for the responsible implementation of new technologies in film. These are not separate, closed departments, but interconnected areas of work in which knowledge and experience circulate freely among participants. Tools and methods are developed in research, transferred through education, tested in real productions, reinforced by the professional community, and secured by legal standards. Leadership in each of these areas is not permanently assigned; it is assumed by the person with the highest competence in a given context, while the remaining pillars support them with their resources. Each subsequent implementation increases the competence of the entire environment, because its results return to the network as an open resource for all members.

PillarRol

ARTOS Labs

Research and development led by filmmakers. Testing tools, methods, and working language for hybrid and generated media, in collaboration with educational and technology partners.

ARTOS Campus

Education and upskilling. Building a common language among directors, cinematographers, producers, and department heads so that decisions in a generative environment are understandable and repeatable

ARTOS Films

Implementing methodology into real film and commercial productions. Methodological consulting, budget optimization, and integration of new technologies under production conditions.

ARTOS Community

A network of experience exchange built on practice. Screenings, seminars, presentations, hackathons, and conferences through which knowledge stays in circulation and builds a shared industry standard.

ARTOS Legal

Legal support for creative standards. AI law compliance built into processes, documentation of creative contributions, decisions, licenses, and data usage.

Programs and Approach

The foundation organizes all of its activities around a jointly developed standard of collaboration: the ARTOS Framework, which forms the basis of its operating model. It structures technological development, member education, and the principles of transparent use of tools so that these remain compliant with applicable AI regulations. The Framework assumes that innovation does not emerge in isolation, but is the result of open communication, which leads to collaboration, and collaboration in turn leads to solutions that no single participant could develop independently.

All ARTOS programs are developed on the basis of this standard. They include both structured advisory support for producers and production managers in the areas of planning, budgeting, and integration of technology partners, as well as collaboration models for clients, agencies, production companies, and studio teams. Participants are not recipients of ready-made solutions; they engage as co-creators, bringing in their own experience and sharing responsibility for the outcome. In this way, the foundation does not merely transfer knowledge, but builds a self-organizing work environment in which innovation remains integrated with authorship, responsibility, and process transparency. The more people join this network, the stronger its shared standard becomes, and the greater the value that each participant receives in return.

Structure and Leadership

The foundation operates according to a collaborative model in which a clearly defined strategic direction is combined with active knowledge exchange and the co-creation of programs, standards, and initiatives by practitioners from film, technology, law, and education. Its structure is not based on rigid hierarchy, but on trust, a shared purpose, and the contextual and rotational nature of leadership in initiatives. Strategic direction and operational coordination are the responsibility of the Management Board: Bartosz Nalazek, founder and President of the Board, and Paweł Pająk, Vice-President of the Board.

The Program Council is composed of experts who actively co-shape the foundation’s program directions, partnership development, and industry standards. They contribute the perspectives of their respective fields and co-create a network of competencies whose value exceeds the sum of its members’ individual experience. At present, its members are: Phedon Papamichael ASC, cinematographer; Pınar Seyhan Demirdag, AI director and co-founder of Cuebric; David Heuring, writer and industry strategist; Piotr Śliskowski PSC, cinematographer and President of the Polish Society of Cinematographers; Adam Bajerski PSC, cinematographer and AI researcher representing the Katowice Film School; Katarzyna Piotrowska-Mańko, attorney and intellectual property law specialist; Jacek Nagłowski, director and VR/AR researcher affiliated with the Łódź Film School; and Sylwia Lewandowska, business psychologist, facilitator, and leadership coach.

An honorary member of the Council is Janusz Kamiński, two-time Academy Award winner for cinematography and longtime collaborator of Steven Spielberg.

The foundation is also developing a partnership program addressed to educational institutions, industry organizations, technology companies, and other entities interested in active participation. Partnership with ARTOS means genuine co-creation of programs, standards, and initiatives. Depending on the experience and nature of a given undertaking, partners may assume the initiative and leadership of selected programs, projects, or thematic tracks. This model is based on the principles of collaboration, rotational leadership, and knowledge sharing. It also allows a partner to appoint a representative to participate in the Foundation’s Program Council, so that institutional cooperation is reflected not only in joint activity, but also at the level of co-shaping strategic directions and operational standards.