The winners were announced on October 3 in Astana. The competition received 8,067 submissions from 125 countries, and 25 works made it to the final program. Among them was Zhumakhan's film, created with the help of artificial intelligence.
The story focuses on a dog and his owner's brother. It all starts with a simple joke, but the conflict gradually escalates and turns into a full-scale war.
„My genre is comedy. The film tells the story of how a dog and its owner's brother start fighting over a simple joke, which eventually turns into a full-scale war,“ said Mirzakhan Zhumakhan.
According to the director, he wanted to make a light comedy. The story largely reflects his own personality and his love of jokes.
The film brought the Kazakh director the award for best hero. The festival announced winners in five special categories: hero, story, visual language, direction and concept. Other awards in this program went to directors from China, Italy and the United States. 8,000 entries and $450,000 for the winner: the winners of the first artificial intelligence film festival were announced in Astana.
Despite the comedy genre of his film, Zhumakhan was seriously worried about the competition. The finalists brought together creators with diverse ideas, styles, and approaches to the use of artificial intelligence.
“Honestly, I was really nervous about the competition because there are so many talented and cool people here. All the participants put a lot of work and time into their films, so in my opinion, each of them was a worthy contender“, noted Zhumahan.
The participants' work was evaluated by representatives of international culture, the film industry, and the technology industry. The jury included:
Audrey Azoulay, former Director-General of UNESCO and former Minister of Culture of France;
Ma Ping, Dean of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the China Film Group;
Wang Hao, Deputy Dean of the Department of Animation of the Beijing Film Academy;
Balaji Srinivasan is an entrepreneur and investor;
Li Long is the General Manager of BytePlus for the Middle East, Africa, India, Turkey and the CIS.
Thus, Zhumahan's comedy received recognition from a jury that combines expertise in cultural policy, film education, artificial intelligence and investment. The festival organizers note that the key to AI cinema is the ideas that creators bring to life using new tools.
“The most interesting thing about AI cinema today is not the technology itself, but what creators are starting to do with it. We saw some very strong and diverse works at the festival - from unusual visual solutions to new ways of telling stories“, says Aizat Kusainov, co-founder of the festival and creative director of AAIFF.
The first AI film festival in Astana took place from October 1 to 3 as part of the Month of Artificial Intelligence. In addition to the competition program, it included business meetings and panel discussions with the participation of creators and representatives of the creative industries. The works of the finalists were shown on the big screen of the cinema on October 2 and 3. The total fund of the festival was $2 million, of which $1 million was allocated for prizes to the winners. Another $1 million was intended for investments in promising teams working on artificial intelligence and for the development of production in Kazakhstan.
The victory of Mirzakhan Zhumakhan was one of the results of the participation of Kazakh authors in the international competition. His story, conceived as a light comedy, was chosen from thousands of proposals and brought its creator the award for best hero.
Earlier it was reported that the results of the first Astana Artificial Intelligence Film Festival were announced in Astana. 8067 applications from 125 countries were submitted for the competition.
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