Blackmagic Design has just dropped the public beta of DaVinci Resolve 20, marking one of the biggest updates in the software’s history. With over 100 new features, this version is not just an incremental update—it’s a full-on evolution, driven largely by deep integration of AI tools across the entire post-production workflow. This includes script-based timeline generation, smart multicam editing, animated subtitles, and more. Here’s a breakdown of what editors, colorists, sound designers, and VFX artists can expect—and how these updates may change the way we approach post-production entirely.
A Shift Toward Text-to-Edit Workflows
One of the most talked-about new features in Resolve 20 is AI IntelliScript, a tool that turns text-based scripts into timelines. This is Resolve’s answer to the growing demand for script-to-screen workflows, where editors start from a written document and let AI do the heavy lifting of structuring the edit. This means that rough cuts can be automatically created simply by providing a transcript or script. For documentary filmmakers, interview-driven editors, and creators dealing with spoken content, this could dramatically reduce the time spent assembling a rough cut. AI Animated Subtitles is another addition designed to streamline content creation—especially for social platforms. It doesn’t just generate subtitles, it animates them in sync with speech, giving creators an auto-stylized look that’s become essential in vertical video culture. Another headline feature is AI Multicam SmartSwitch, which automatically cuts between camera angles based on who’s speaking. While multicam editing has been around for a while, SmartSwitch leverages speaker detection, reducing the need for manual camera switching and offering faster turnaround for podcasts, interviews, and talk shows. This could particularly benefit productions with tight schedules or smaller editing teams. It’s also a glimpse into how AI is learning to understand performance and narrative flow.
Cut Page: Streamlining Live and Fast Turnaround Edits
The Cut page remains the go-to space for editors working under pressure. New features in Resolve 20, like Multi Source, allow editors to preview and assemble multicam edits even as footage is still being recorded. This is a huge deal for live broadcasts and sports—you can now build edits in real time, which used to be a highly specialized job. Combined with the Cut page’s already fast UI, dual timelines, and Smart Insert tools, the updates further cement it as a practical workspace for quick edits—whether for broadcast, news, or social media.
The cut page is perfect for projects with tight deadlines that you have to turn around quickly. The cut page has a streamlined interface that’s fast to learn and designed for speed. Features such as source tape, dual timelines, fast review, and smart editing tools help you work faster than ever. The sync bin and source overwrite tools let you quickly edit multicam programs. It’s also great for documentaries and now live broadcast editing and replay. Multi Source is the fastest way to see your cameras and edit to the timeline while the cameras are still recording! Everything on the cut page is action based so every click does something. That means you’ll spend more time editing and less time hunting for commands.
Blackmagic Design
Edit Page: A Smarter Traditional NLE
The Edit page remains the heart of Resolve for most narrative and commercial editors. While the layout hasn’t changed much, the addition of new context-aware trimming, improved keyboard mapping, and smoother timeline organization makes it more responsive than ever. The big news here is less about revolution and more about refinement. Resolve 20 smooths out the edges of the editing experience, with better performance, more effects, and improved timeline media handling for complex projects—think features, episodics, or high-volume YouTube workflows.
The edit page is the world’s most advanced professional non-linear editor. The familiar track layout, dual monitor design and traditional workflow makes it easy for new users to learn while still being powerful enough for professional editors. It’s perfect for larger projects such as feature films, television shows, streaming, commercials, documentaries and more. The edit page features drag and drop editing, context sensitive automatic trimming tools, fully customizable keyboard shortcuts so you can work faster, and a library full of hundreds of titles, transitions, and effects that you can add and animate. You also get complete media management, organization and timeline management tools.
Blackmagic Design
Color Page: Deeper Magic with Chroma Warp
The Color page is where Resolve made its name, and in version 20 it gets an AI-enhanced boost with Chroma Warp, a new addition to the Color Warper tool. Chroma Warp lets colorists bend and shift hues in highly specific ways—especially useful for skin tones and product matching. Meanwhile, the Magic Mask and Depth Map tools have received substantial updates, promising faster and more accurate isolation for grading. These tools already used machine learning in previous versions, but now they feel more “ready for production” than ever before.
The DaVinci Resolve color page is Hollywood’s most advanced color corrector and has been used to color and finish more high end feature films and television shows than any other system! It’s also approachable with features designed to make it easier for new users to get great results while they continue to learn the advanced tools. For example, primary control sliders will be familiar to anyone who’s used image editing software, making it easy to adjust contrast, temperature, midtone detail, saturation and more. The color page has an incredible range of primary and secondary color grading features including PowerWindows, qualifiers, tracking, advanced HDR grading tools and more!
Blackmagic Design
Fusion: Node-Based Compositing Evolves
For VFX artists, Fusion gets a suite of enhancements centered around multi-layer compositing workflows. Resolve is continuing to push toward offering a true After Effects alternative, and with a growing library of 2D/3D tools and smoother node interactions, it’s getting there. The new update brings improvements to animation curves, camera tracking, and 3D space management, giving motion graphic designers more control over visual storytelling—all inside one software environment.
The Fusion page lets you create cinematic visual effects and broadcast quality motion graphics right inside of DaVinci Resolve! Fusion features a node based workflow that makes it faster and easier to create sophisticated effects and animations than you could ever create using a layer based approach. You get hundreds of 2D and 3D tools for visual effects and motion graphics, along with advanced animation curve and keyframe editors that allow you to create incredibly organic and realistic animations. Fusion has everything from point, planar and 3D camera tracking to rotoscope and keying tools for creating photorealistic composites, stunning animated titles, 3D particle systems and more!
Blackmagic Design
Fairlight: Audio Editing with Built-In AI
Audio post in Resolve 20 takes a leap forward with Fairlight IntelliCut, an AI-powered tool that automatically removes silences and checkerboards dialogue (alternating speaker tracks)—a godsend for podcast editors, reality TV, and documentary audio. Voice Isolation, Music Remixer, and new AI-driven EQ and dynamics processors are now joined by IntelliTrack, which can use video to drive automated panning. That’s a genuinely new frontier in spatial audio design and immersive formats like Dolby Atmos and ambisonics. The system also supports up to 2,000 real-time audio tracks, which is more than enough for even the largest studio sessions.
The Fairlight page features hundreds of pro tools for audio post production. It’s like having a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) built into your editing and color system! The Fairlight Audio Core lets you work with up to 2,000 tracks at a time with realtime effects, EQ, and dynamics processing! You get sample accurate editing tools, advanced ADR and Foley, and Fairlight FX such as reverb, de-esser, and hum remover, plus AI effects like Voice Isolation and Music Remixer and more. IntelliTrack AI tracking lets you use video to track the Fairlight audio panner and you can mix and master stereo, 5.1, 7.1, and even immersive 3D audio formats including 5th order ambisonics!
Blackmagic Design
A Glimpse of the Future of Editing
With Resolve 20, Blackmagic is staking a claim not just as a color grading suite or a free editor for beginners—but as an AI-forward, end-to-end post-production powerhouse. Unlike other tools that bolt AI features onto a legacy NLE, Resolve is building its entire architecture to embrace this future. The blend of real-time AI assistance, deeper tool integration, and better hardware optimization (especially on Apple Silicon and Blackmagic hardware) is turning Resolve into the kind of software that can seriously challenge Adobe and Avid for both speed and innovation.
The Public Beta Approach
As always, this is a public beta, so expect some bugs. Professionals should test it out on non-critical projects first, especially since timelines and effects may not be backward-compatible. But the beta cycle also means you can start experimenting with these AI features now and help shape the final version with feedback.
Final Thoughts
DaVinci Resolve 20 represents a genuine shift in how post-production will be done in the near future. Whether you’re a solo YouTuber, a TV editor, or a finishing colorist on a feature film, this update has something that will probably speed up or improve your workflow. With AI increasingly becoming a real creative partner in the editing suite, Resolve 20 shows us what happens when AI is fully embedded into the DNA of post-production—not just as a helper, but as a co-editor. As the community delves deeper into DaVinci Resolve 20’s capabilities, more detailed feedback and reviews are expected to emerge. We’ll keep you posted about this, so stay tuned.
Lazy article. Not telling us anything about the new features
Hey! This post is just a press update to inform our readers about the official announcement — a quick heads-up, not a deep-dive. Rest assured, in-depth reviews and feature breakdowns are coming soon as we thoroughly explore DaVinci Resolve 20.
THX!
To my surprise and delight, Blackmagic finally added ProRes output support in windows all as a point upgrade rather than releasing with ver 20. This is huge for many with very little fanfare and coverage.