Award of Excellence – “NEXUS” (USA)

Title: NEXUS
Runtime: 10 min
Country: USA
Director: Win Brooks
Placement: Award of Excellence
Competition: December, 2018

Synopsis: Engineers of self-driving cars face a moral dilemma: in order to operate autonomously, the cars must be programed with artificial morality, the nexus between right and wrong.

Consider a speeding car and a pedestrian. Does the autonomous car swerve and slam into a parked car, or does it save the driver from injury or death by hitting the pedestrian? Whose life is more valuable? Consider this: if we grant machines the power of judgment, do we also grant them the power to punish?

“NEXUS” provokes the second debate. It joins moral certainty and authentic implications with B movie thrills.