Film gala to honor AI-generated works

The 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival will be held in Sanya, Hainan province, from Dec 6 to 12, with an artificial intelligence-focused film event as a highlight.

The AI Film Gala, themed "Beyond Generation", began accepting submissions on Oct 21, with a Nov 15 deadline. It aims to explore how AI is reshaping film production while placing cinematic quality at the center of its evaluation.

The gala features four submission categories: AI Feature Films, AI Premium Series, AI Short Films, and AI Experimental Moving Image. Feature-length works are a particular focus, as they require teams to bring together storytelling, character development, visual design, music, and different production methods, organizers say.

"We are not simply looking for films made with AI; we want to discover the people who are redefining cinema," said Xie Limei, the gala's chief curator and secretary-general of the AI Artistic Innovation Alliance.

"As AI generation becomes a foundational capability in screen production, what is truly scarce is no longer the ability to generate content, but human creative judgment, directorial ability, original storytelling, and the capacity to turn AI into a productive creative tool," Xie added.

"The value of a new film industry in the AI era lies not only in speed or production cost, but in whether creators can command story and audiovisual language, whether teams can collaborate, iterate and deliver reliably, and whether a work can build a relationship with its audience," Xie shared.

The gala expects to select about 50 works for screening and consideration for its annual honors. Categories include film of the year, directing, screenwriting, digital performance, cinematography and visual design, and sound. The official selection is expected in mid-to-late November.

Beyond film submissions, the gala will work with the Institute for Science and Arts at the Beijing Film Academy to publish a report examining AI's capabilities and the challenges it still faces in professional filmmaking. It will also collaborate with the Image & Technology Domain at the School of Design, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, to explore new forms of moving-image expression.