Seoul, Kyoto, Cannes: What Asia teaches us about AI cinema
[BY]
Axelle Baudlot
[Category]
News
[DATE]
David Defendi, co-founder of Genario and jury member of the World AI Film Festival, looks back on the Korean and Japanese editions of WAiFF 2026. A first-hand perspective on a creative scene that embraces AI without hesitation — and what this says about the future of this Art.
Seoul, then Kyoto. Two stages. Two juries. Hundreds of films.
What was seen there is nothing like what we see in Europe.
And that is precisely what struck David.
A fundamentally different relationship with AI
In Asia, creative AI is not a topic of debate. It is a material. Artists seize it, explore it, embrace it — without having to justify themselves. What matters most is the work. What counts is what they have to say.
It's not a question of technology. It's a question of stance.
Over there, an artist isn't asked to legitimize their tool. They are asked what story they have to tell.
The Korean selection: freedom of tone and hybrid narratives
Five films have been selected to represent Korea on The Road to Cannes:
Dog, Octopus & Me — Park Elhen
LOSING — Dayoung Lim
Magic Mirror.AI — Ji Sungmin
WE LOOKED AWAY — Wonkyoung Kim
Devoured — Lee Eun Young
Fragmented narratives, hybrid aesthetics, a freedom of form that does not seek to imitate traditional cinema — but to invent a new one.
The Japanese selection: minimalism and visual radicalism
Five works from Japan also join the competition:
Lost Toy Requiem — Kenji Ishihara
Re right — Suguru Niino
Samurai Egg — Manabu Nakatani
This is Me — Marika Hirata
SWETOS — The One AI Lab
A more minimalist, more contemplative visual language — but just as radical in its way of inhabiting the image and using AI as an artistic material in its own right.
What these selections reveal
The talents come from all backgrounds. Established filmmakers, visual artists, collectives, unknowns. Creative AI does not reproduce the hierarchies of traditional cinema — it redistributes them.
This is perhaps the most important lesson of this Asian tour: when you let artists express themselves without subjecting them to the trial of technological debate, they create. Simply. Powerfully.
The next step: Cannes
These ten films now join The Road to Cannes.
They will be present on April 21 and 22 at the World AI Film Festival, alongside talents from Brazil, China, and all of Europe.
The date is set.
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