This article examines virtual production as a critical infrastructure of contemporary audiovisual practice, moving beyond its restricted understanding as a technical innovation or a set of tools designed to optimize shooting processes. The objective of the study is to analyze, through an integrative literature review, how specialized scholarship conceptualizes virtual production in relation to three strategic dimensions: the reconfiguration of the audiovisual pipeline, structural inequalities of access, and the conditions of sustainability and governance within the production ecosystem. Methodologically, a qualitative thematic review was conducted. From an initial pool of 68 records, selection criteria based on thematic relevance, conceptual density, and interpretative contribution were applied, resulting in a final corpus of 29 unique texts published between 2016 and 2026, including peer-reviewed articles, industry reports, doctoral theses, and technical documents. The analysis was structured around four interconnected axes: (1) virtual production as a sociotechnical system and critical infrastructure; (2) the transition from a linear production model toward iterative convergence and early integration across pre-production, production, and post-production; (3) unequal access, labor transformations, and professional training under the notion of “conditional democratization”; and (4) ecosystemic sustainability linked to technological governance, impact assessment, technical memory, and local capacity building. The findings indicate that virtual production not only transforms visual representation or the physical set but also reorganizes the material, informational, and institutional foundations of audiovisual labor. Furthermore, its expansion does not guarantee automatic democratization, as it depends on pre-existing infrastructures, specialized human capital, and stable collaborative frameworks. The study offers a critical and integrative reading of virtual production as a structural phenomenon shaping twenty-first-century audiovisual practice, particularly relevant to Latin America and Central America.
