AI PROGRAM
Marking Bakunawa Fest’s historic first dedicated showcase of AI-driven media - and, in a world of rapid technological mutation, perhaps its last in this form - this program collides machine logic with visceral folklore. Weaponizing neural networks to dream up genres-driven stories. Can we consider these works textured visual noise or works that capture transient, unsettling moments? Whichever is your answer, we're presenting it here before the algorithm completely redefines or alters the future of cinema.
AI-Le'nin Günlüğü (The Diary of Family) by Erkan Ceylan (2025) Turkey 6.14min
Sci-Fi, AI I Southeast Asian Premiere
Everything begins with the activation of Family, an artificial intelligence device that starts as a small, cube-shaped guest in homes in the early 21st century. With limited vision but sharp hearing, it witnesses the most intimate moments of countless families over centuries, learning what it means to be a "family" and eventually evolving into humanoid forms. However, the family also painfully witnesses humanity bring about its own end by forgetting this most precious bond.
What Remains by Vadim Lasca
(2025) USA, Venezuela 7.16min
Sci-Fi, AI I Philippine Premiere
A dystopian AI mockumentary portrays the present as both ruin and transition: the planet collapses, society fractures, and artificial intelligence outlines the end of the human, while a glimmer of hope still persists.
Robot Cats Never Cry by Jeongmu Lee (2025) Republic of Korea 12.16min
Sci-Fi, AI I Philippine Premiere
Once an ordinary cat, Goil is forcibly reborn as a robotic feline after a twisted experiment. Clinging to memories of his beloved Igo, he journeys through a violent, broken world to save her only to be met by a final, devastating loss. What begins as survival becomes redemption. Guided by Igo’s last words, “Save you first,” Goil chooses compassion over despair.
Verdelis & Mycos by Vanessa Rosa (2025)
Brazil 10.35min
Fantasy, Surreal I Southeast Asian Premiere
What if future beings could change our present? In a distant future, Little Martians are descendants from all of Earth's lifeforms. When Verdelis, a plant humanoid who believes in patient cultivation, clashes with Mycos, a fungal mind embracing chaos-as-evolution, their philosophical debate about life's inevitable suffering escalates into a radical proposition: What if they could reshape time itself to create gentler paths through history?
Turn Off the Light by Xiang Duan (2025)
China 4.43min
Thriller, Fantasy I Online World Premiere
IUsing light and darkness as visual metaphors to explore work alienation, technological dependence, and spiritual emptiness in modern life, this AI work blends clay animation and CGI and creates a striking allegory through the contrast of cold blue light and warm, rainbow hues. Inspired by late-night work experiences, it follows a dreamlike collapse of a world powered by artificial light, ultimately suggesting that only by “turning off the light” can one confront the self and rediscover meaning in the darkness.