This image of an Oscar statuette destroyed in Los Angeles fires is AI-generated

The image seems symbolic: A burned Oscar statuette lies in scorched rubble, its base charred and its golden shine faded.

The Los Angeles wildfires are affecting Hollywood’s elite and ordinary Southern California residents alike, and the image seemed to tell part of that story.

“Robert Redford Oscar after the fire,” one X user said. Actor Isabella Rossellini, who has received critical praise for her performance in the 2024 film “Conclave,” also reposted the image, calling it “heartbreaking.”

Screenshot from Instagram

But the image is not real. Emmanuelle Saliba, a spokesperson at cybersecurity company GetReal Labs, wrote in an email that GetReal analyzed the image and found the shadows and implausible lightning reveal that it was made using artificial intelligence.

Saliba said the image was shared in a Facebook group for AI-creations and digital art, but was later deleted. She pointed us to a second Facebook group called Guerrilla Art, where the same creator posted the image Jan. 11. The account that shared the image regularly shares images in another Facebook group for AI-created images.

“Mr. Redford lives in Santa Fe and that is not his Oscar,” Jordan Rubinstein, a Redford spokesperson, told PolitiFact in an email.

We contacted Rossellini about the image but received no response. 

We rate the claim that an image shows Redford’s Oscar statuette that was destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.