Best AI Film | Cornered (Odair FALECO, Davi MOORI)
TimeTree Best Technical Achievement | Big Ball (LIM Ye-jun)
TapNow New Wave Award | Let There Be Light (TAKAHASHI Hiromu)
AIMMOVIE Audience Award | Ask Me Anything (LEE Yong-seuk)


¡á Jury's Commentary
This year, the selections in the Bucheon Choice AI Film section have powerfully demonstrated that AI cinema has evolved beyond the phase of merely proving technological feasibility. The core question is no longer just what we can create with AI, but rather what kinds of cinematic emotions and worlds we can experience through this new medium.

In evaluating this year’s submissions, the jury prioritized not only technical proficiency but also how persuasively AI was utilized within the emotional and narrative fabric of the films. Intriguingly, the three main award-winning films all turn their gaze back on the very tools used to create them, each in its own distinct manner. One film mirrors the anxieties of an entire era through a protagonist’s grueling day; another demonstrates technological potential by rendering the most deeply human moments through AI; and yet another recalls the enduring memories of traditional cinema, proving that its age-old dreams persist within this new medium.

Above all, this year’s works have shown that AI cinema does not have to aspire solely to colossal universes or extravagant spectacles. Everyday emotions, private memories, and long-cherished dreams can also form the vital core of AI filmmaking. Rather than defining the present state of AI cinema through a single lens, the jury sought to highlight the diverse possibilities coexisting within it.

The future of AI cinema will not be determined by the speed of technological advancement alone. Ultimately, what matters most are the questions held by the creators wielding that technology, and how deeply and honestly those questions are translated onto the screen. This year’s fifteen selections have all proven this potential in their respective ways. The jury extends its deepest respect and gratitude to all the creators who have courageously cast their questions toward a future of cinema that has not yet fully arrived.


¢º Best AI Film | Cornered (Directors: Odair FALECO, Davi MOORI)
Cornered is a film that demonstrates that AI cinema does not need to justify its existence solely through vast worlds or spectacular imagery. It was the quietest film among this year’s screenings, yet it lingered the longest in the minds of the jury.

The film follows the inner world of a man crumbling under the urban noise of São Paulo and the pressures of daily life. In an era demanding greater speed, efficiency, and productivity, the protagonist drifts further away from himself, and the film captures this inner collapse not through grand events, but through the lens of a repetitive daily routine and subtle psychological fractures. The original title, Sinuca de Bico, is a Brazilian idiom referring to a snooker situation where a ball is cornered with no viable angle to shoot; it evokes a life that is not entirely without an exit, but rather without a playable angle—a predicament in which the film’s sorrow gradually accumulates.

The jury particularly noted the methodology behind the film’s creation. Rooted in the directors’ personal experiences and emotions, this is an intensely intimate narrative wherein AI functions as a precise language that conveys the very texture of emotion. By blending reality with psychological landscapes, the film proves that AI can transcend mere spectacular devices to become a new cinematic grammar capable of visualizing emotional states. The fact that this language remains precisely controlled by the directors’ intent from beginning to end elevates its quietude into profound artistic maturity.

Cornered is a film about AI, but simultaneously, it is a film about humanity living in the age of AI. As this work exemplifies, technology only runs as deep as the questions posed by those who wield it. For its profound exploration of an individual’s grueling day—using the newest tool to tell the most personal story—the jury proudly awards the Best AI Film prize to Cornered.


¢º TimeTree Best Technical Achievement | Big Ball (Director: LIM Ye-jun)
In discussing the TimeTree Best Technical Achievement award, the jury paradoxically found themselves captivated by the least extravagant scenes. While many AI films attempt to showcase technology through unrealistic spectacles, Big Ball takes the opposite path. The meticulous calibration of everyday expressions and conversational rhythms through AI constitutes a significant technical milestone for this film.

In particular, the narrative framework—a film being generated and edited by an AI in real time—goes beyond a clever gimmick; it represents a structure that could not exist outside of this specific medium. Even as an AI-generated film addresses a scenario in which AI creates a movie, it refrains from flaunting the technology. Instead, it quietly observes how that technology integrates into human life and creative moments, marking a fresh juncture where form and narrative validate each other.

Furthermore, the director successfully steers the inherent unpredictability of AI production into a deliberately crafted world and rhythm. Rather than demonstrating technical flamboyance, the film chooses to capture human moments through technology—and by sustaining that choice unwaveringly across a 30-minute runtime, it completely lives up to its title: a film with Big Ball.


¢º TapNow New Wave Award | Let There Be Light (Director: TAKAHASHI Hiromu)
New transformations often begin by re-examining the oldest traditions. Set in a dark future where human emotions serve as electrical power, Let There Be Light follows a lonely man’s quest to find light. His journey traverses the realms of silent film, musicals, and classical cinematic memories, resurrecting the sensory and emotional heritage accumulated over the past century through the new medium of AI.

The jury found themselves lingering on this work because of a quiet melancholy that permeates the screen. The protagonist encounters light not in reality, but solely within cinematic memories. This imagery returns to us as a poignant question: Where will our dreams reside in the future? The man on the screen may have already arrived in that era ahead of us.

We believe the TapNow New Wave Award should be bestowed not upon the most flawlessly polished work, but upon a piece that uncovers future possibilities. Let There Be Light translates the anxieties of this unfamiliar era not into a debate, but into an individual’s emotional journey, proving that AI cinema can move beyond mere imitation of traditional film to generate entirely different modes of perception and experience. For this refreshing endeavor that invites us to imagine the next direction of AI cinema, the jury awards the TapNow New Wave Award to Let There Be Light.