Automata

Automata is set in a future in which much of the Earth has become desert and the surviving population depends on robots for work outside fortified cities. Jacq Vaucan, an insurance agent for the robotics corporation ROC, investigates what look like routine cases of machine malfunction. He finds evidence that the robots have been deliberately altered, and his inquiries bring him into conflict with the company and raise questions about how far artificial intelligence can develop and whether humans can still control it. Antonio Banderas plays Vaucan and also produced.

Gabe Ibáñez directed and co-wrote the film with Igor Legarreta and Javier Sánchez Donate. Released in 2014, it was the first of two features Ibáñez has directed, followed by The Marked Woman in 2026. The cast includes Melanie Griffith as Dr. Susan Dupré and the voice of Cleo, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Rachel Vaucan, Dylan McDermott as Wallace, Robert Forster as Robert Bold and Tim McInnerny as Vernon Conway. It was a co-production between Bulgaria and Spain.

Made for about 7 million dollars, Automata took roughly 6 million dollars at the worldwide box office, less than its budget. On IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 62,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.9 out of 10 from about 1,855 votes. A critics' rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 35 reviews places it close to the audience scores. The film's modest scale and its bleak, desert-bound future set it apart from larger science-fiction productions of the period.