AI dubbing could make watching foreign films easy

The Swedish sci-fi-film Watch the Skies recently made history in United States (U.S.) cinemas, not because of its storyline, but because of how it was dubbed.

Using a new tool called DeepEditor the film’s video and audio changed to make it look like the actors were actually speaking English. The result was so natural that, according to Maxime Cottray COO of XYZ Films, most viewers would not realise it was originally in Swedish.

“If we hadn’t dubbed it into English, this movie would never have been show in US cinemas,” says Cottray. The English version was released in 110 AMC theatres in May, giving a small Swedish production a much bigger audience.

Flawless, a London based company, created DeepEditor in 2020. Its founder, writer and director Scott Mann, wanted a better way to dub movies without losing the actor’s original performance.

The software uses face detection, facial recognition, and 3D tracking to match lip movements and emotions with the new dialogue. This means no reshoots or costly re-recording are needed. Mann says it can be up to ten times cheaper than traditional methods.

Streaming giants like Netflix and Apple are already interested, with more people watching global content, the film dubbing market is expected to grow from $4 billion in 2024 to $7.6 billion by 2033, according to Business Research Insights.

Mann believes this technology will help more non-English films reach global audiences. “There is so much amazing cinema that English speakers never watch because they don’t like subtitles o dubbing,” he says.

Not everyone is convinced as Neta Alexander, a film and media professor at Yale University, warns that over reliance on AI dubbing could harm cultural diversity.

“If all foreign films are made to look and sound English, audiences lose the authentic experience of other languages and cultures,” said Neta.

She also points out that removing subtitles can make films less accessible for language learners, immigrants, and viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing.