BIFAN 2025 Bucheon Choice: AI Films Winners
Bucheon Choice: AI Film
Best AI Film | Last Dream (Directed by KUSHIDA Takeshi)
TimeTree Best Technical Achievement | More Tears Than Harm (Directed by Herinarivo RAKOTOMANANA)
¡Ø Jury’s Special Mention | Confession (Directed by JANG Gun-ho), Total Pixel Space (Directed by Jacob ADLER)
Audience Award | Mold (Directed by KIM Woon-ha)
Commentary
This year’s selection presented the jury with an extraordinary journey across time, memory, digital consciousness, and the evolving boundaries of human perception. From poetic meditations on existence to critical inquiries into AI-driven futures, the selected works showcased the immense creative possibilities of AI filmmaking. It was a true challenge and privilege to witness such bold, imaginative visions from around the world.
¢º Best AI Film | Last Dream (Directed by KUSHIDA Takeshi)
A cosmic dream of a film that never once felt long. Last Dream offers a poetic, AI-driven meditation on life and time, contemplating human evolution from a higher, almost divine perspective. Its elegance and profound vision left an unforgettable impression on the jury. A favorite among us, it truly encapsulates what AI cinema can aspire to be.
¢º TimeTree Best Technical Achievement | More Tears Than Harm (Directed by Herinarivo RAKOTOMANANA)
Following the trail of dust stirred by a car, the film arrives at a place of personal memory—Madagascar. Landscapes rendered in vivid colors gradually materialize, only to be disrupted by the wind and the flutter of laundry, grounding us back in the present. The director longs for fresh fish over packaged ones, and at the crossroads of past and present, journeys along an AI-created road through space and time. This film beautifully reconstructs private memories through AI technology with remarkable clarity. We were particularly moved by the AI’s capacity to perceive ‘pain’ as ‘a deep tear.’ For its emotional subtlety and technological sophistication.
¡Ø Jury’s Special Mention | Confession (Directed by JANG Gun-ho), Total Pixel Space (Directed by Jacob ADLER)
Confession tells the story of a humanoid seeking divine absolution in a world determined to erase his kind. It asks fundamental questions: For whom does God exist? And what, ultimately, separates humans from emotion-capable robots? While the premise may feel familiar, its execution is sincere and thought-provoking. This film invites profound reflection on AI’s coexistence with humanity, and how we define life, soul, and identity in a machine-aware era.
A striking conceptual work, Total Pixel Space challenges our understanding of digital imagery. If every image is merely a cluster of pixels, how can memory—subjective and immeasurable—be represented? This film interrogates not only perception but the limits of digital reality itself. By collaborating with AI to explore these philosophical ambiguities, the film provides profound insight into how we see, feel, and remember in a pixel-based world. A deeply intellectual achievement.
¢º Audience Award | Mold (Directed by KIM Woon-ha)