Film festival integrates AI with storytelling still at heart

Despite the unprecedented expansion of artificial intelligence, veteran filmmaker Shan Zhidan, founder of the Asia International Youth Film Festival, believes that while filmmaking tools may change, the human heart and the desire to tell meaningful stories will remain.

For the first time, the festival, which concluded its fifth edition with an awards ceremony at Asia Television in Hong Kong earlier this year, introduced an AI section. Hot-Blooded Dachen Island won the Best AI Film award, while its screenwriter Chen Zhengming received the Best New Screenwriter award.

Running 120 minutes, the film is based on the real-life story of land reclamation on Dachen Island in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. It uses AI-generated visuals throughout, making it one of the country's first feature-length online films to feature AI-generated imagery for human characters.

"It is hoped that the establishment of this section will encourage young filmmakers in China and around the world to stay true to the priority of telling good stories, even amid the surging tide of technological change," said Shan, also secretary-general of the Asian Filmmakers Association.