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Time of India
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Here's why AI filmmaking is stealing the spotlight
When AI Writes the Script - The Big Debate at Bucheon The 29th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) is making waves, and not just for its wild genre films. This year, the hottest topic is artificial intelligence. From international AI film competitions to hands-on workshops and a major conference, BIFAN is going all-in on exploring what happens when machines start making movies. The opening film, ' Finding Him ,' directed by Piotr Winiewicz, is a total game-changer. The script? Written by an AI that binge-watched every Werner Herzog film ever made. Imagine an AI trying to capture the quirky, philosophical style of a legendary director - and then humans actually filming it, word for word, with no edits. That's the kind of experiment that makes you wonder: are we witnessing the birth of a new kind of cinema, or just a high-tech gimmick? The Human Touch vs. Machine Logic by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Show Off Your Talent: Enter the Ultimate Creator Contest! Tocsin Media & Marketing LLC Undo Winiewicz didn't set out to copy Herzog or poke fun at him. Instead, he wanted to see what happens when you let AI loose on the creative process. The result? A story about a mysterious death in a fictional German city, narrated in a documentary style that feels eerily Herzog-like. But here's the twist: the AI's original title was 'A Surprisingly Ordinary Dreaming Hero.' Not exactly mind-blowing, right? This is where things get real for young creators. We expect AI to show us wild, impossible worlds, but sometimes it just spits out something... ordinary. It's a reminder that, for now, AI can remix what it's learned, but it can't quite leap into the unknown the way a human can. The film doesn't just show off tech - it asks us to question what's real, what's fake, and how much we trust the stories we're told, especially in a world flooded with social media and deepfakes.
Korea Herald
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
'We're seeing AI-enhanced workflows, not replacement': Storytek CEO Sten-Kristian Saluveer
AI takes center stage as Bucheon Film Festival explores cinema's future BUCHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- The 29th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival opened Thursday with a bold statement on cinema's future, selecting as its opening film "About a Hero" -- a hybrid documentary by Piotr Winiewicz featuring an AI-generated screenplay trained on Werner Herzog's complete filmography. The festival's commitment to exploring artificial intelligence runs deep, with 11 AI films among its 217-title program and a three-day conference dedicated to examining how the technology is reshaping creative processes in cinema. Sunday marked the first day of the festival's AI conference at Bucheon Art Center, bringing together industry pioneers, technologists and policymakers to examine practical applications and future implications of AI-driven production. The sessions revealed both the technology's rapid development and the film industry's varied responses to its integration. Sunday's conference began with presentations from leading Korean producers working with AI technology. Roy Oh, who runs the YouTube channel Oddy Studio, premiered his short film "Color My Garden," a biographical piece about Frida Kahlo told from the artist's perspective. The film, created using tools like Midjourney and Runway, showcased the creator's signature style of blending classical art with contemporary settings. While the film at times exhibits the uncanny sleekness and occasional awkwardness of AI-generated content -- repetitive compositions, abrupt cuts between scenes -- moments of genuine visual innovation were palpable, particularly in sequences showing flowers blooming from Kahlo's body. "It's not just what AI makes, it's how we make AI tell your story," Oh said, describing his week-long production process that treats AI collaboration like "writing a book in real time." Lee Sang-wook of MBC C&I Content Lab followed with a demonstration of AI's integration into traditional television production, showing how his team enhanced space scenes in a TV show by combining AI-generated visuals with live actors. Viewers who watched the show responded positively to the hybrid approach. "Starting from prompts, we can now visualize concepts that would have cost millions," Lee said. His lab, launched in 2024, runs training workshops for aspiring creators and has produced several award-winning AI films, including "Mateo," which won the grand prize at Korea's first AI International Film Festival. The afternoon panel discussion, originally intended to focus on AI, quickly pivoted to broader industry concerns about Korea's declining theater attendance and competition from streaming platforms. Featuring festival director Shin Chul, French National Cinema Center President Gaetan Bruel and producer Lee Dong-ha, the conversation centered on Korea's struggling film industry and potential lessons from France's protective measures. Bruel outlined the French government's comprehensive support system, including mandatory "holdback" periods that reserve theatrical releases for four months before they are available for streaming. In Korea, films often appear on platforms within weeks of theatrical release. "In France, we had 181 million tickets sold last year — only a 10 percent decrease from pre-pandemic levels," Bruel noted, comparing it to Korea's nearly 50 percent drop. He emphasized that, in France, people with the most streaming subscriptions are often the most avid moviegoers. The French model mandates streaming platforms reinvest part of their revenue into local content -- a system that generated €900 million for 180 projects by 140 independent production companies. When asked about AI's impact on cinema's future, Bruel expressed measured skepticism. "Cinema is about emotions, about the infinite complexity of dialogue," he said. "While AI brings new possibilities, I have more reasons to be concerned than enthusiastic. The risk is reducing the extent of creativity." The day's most practical analysis came from Sten-Kristian Saluveer, CEO of Storytek and Strategic Advisor for Cannes NEXT, who delivered a recorded lecture mapping AI's integration across global film production. His presentation showcased how major festivals beyond BIFAN have adapted, with Rotterdam and Tribeca now accepting AI films in their official competitions. Saluveer highlighted the evolution from "AI artists" to "AI studio directors" -- creatives who combine traditional filmmaking knowledge with technical expertise. Major studios now use AI for pre-visualization, with one TV series generating 24 VFX shots in a single day versus weeks it would take using conventional methods. "We're seeing AI-enhanced workflows where the technology supports rather than replaces traditional filmmaking," Saluveer explained. The applications extend beyond visual effects into budgeting, script development and regulatory compliance -- what he termed a comprehensive "optimization paradigm." Genre filmmaking would particularly benefit from this trend, with tools like Veo helping independent horror directors create proof-of-concept materials previously requiring studio backing. Looking ahead, Saluveer predicted the rise of AI-transparent filmmaking within a few years, in which the technology becomes as ubiquitous and routine as digital cameras. "Instead of thinking narrowly about AI producing visual content, it's becoming a huge optimizer," he said, emphasizing that success requires investing in talent development over the acquisition of tools. "Great filmmakers powered with AI will make great AI films. Underskilled filmmakers will ultimately make bad films."
Wall Street Journal
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘All the Sharks' Review: Diving Into Danger on Netflix
In the 2005 documentary 'Grizzly Man,' director Werner Herzog told the story of Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast who claimed to have a special rapport with the beasts and was eventually eaten by one in 2003. Treadwell had been recording video at the time of his death, but the camera didn't fully function during the attack and all that survived was the audio. 'Don't ever listen to this,' Mr. Herzog cautioned Treadwell's ex-girlfriend. It was as haunting a moment as has ever appeared in a nature film. 'All the Sharks,' a new competition show on Netflix, arrives during TV's annual summer shark festival, which will include hours of 'shark-infested programming,' as National Geographic happily puts it. Discovery's 'Shark Week' begins July 20. This year, the 50th anniversary of 'Jaws' is a bonus, along with spinoff specials that, like remoras, will ride along aboard the Spielberg classic, which used to keep people out of the water and, upon a revisit, may still. Continuing to jump in will be diver-conservationist Ocean Ramsey: As the subject of 'Shark Whisperer,' which appears on Netflix, too, she actually has to say, 'I'm not a crazy person,' as she comes far too close to hungry mouths.
Khaleej Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
US actor Kim Novak to receive Venice film festival career award
Kim Novak, a Hollywood diva from the 1950s and 1960s who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at this year's Venice Film Festival, organisers said on Monday. Best known for her starring role in the 1958 psychological thriller, Novak also held notable roles in classics such as Kiss Me, Stupid by Billy Wilder, as well as Picnic and The Man with the Golden Arm. The 92-year-old actor will be given the so-called Golden Lion for "inadvertently becoming a screen legend", the festival's Artistic Director Alberto Barbera said in a statement. "Kim Novak was one of the most beloved icons of an entire era of Hollywood films, from her auspicious debut during the mid-1950s until her premature and voluntary exile from the gilded cage of Los Angeles a short while later," Barbera said, calling her independent and nonconformist. The documentary Kim Novak's Vertigo by Swiss-American film director Alexandre Philippe, made in cooperation with the actor, will be premiered at the festival to accompany the award, organizers said. "I am deeply, deeply touched to receive the prestigious Golden Lion Award from such an enormously respected film festival. To be recognised for my body of work at this time in my life is a dream come true," Novak said in the statement. The 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival will run from August 27 to September 6, 2025. Werner Herzog, the veteran German director of "Fitzcarraldo", will also receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement this year. The line-up of films in competition is due to be revealed in July.
Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Burden of Dreams (1982) review — the engrossing Fitzcarraldo backstory
The opening titles of Les Blank's behind-the-scenes documentary boast that it's 'starring' the director Werner Herzog. A documentary? Starring? And yet that's exactly what you get in this gruelling and engrossing Fitzcarraldo backstory. The production is a litany of disasters. Jason Robards, the lead actor, exits with dysentery, followed by his co-star Mick Jagger. The Robards replacement Klaus Kinski is furious with the remote Peruvian location, hissing, 'You can't escape this f***ing stinking camp!' Bulldozers break down. Ships don't work. City sex workers are bizarrely bussed in for the male crew to neutralise the possibility of intimate, and thus culturally sensitive, relations with local indigenous women. Throughout all this there's Herzog, captain of the ship (he remains on the film's steamship when it runs aground),
