Best AI Short Films (Chandler International Film Festival)

When the Emergency Alert Came

Directed by: Taejin Ahn

Run Time: 16 minutes 0 seconds, South Korea

Premiere status: US Premiere

Ji-min, a journalist with five years of experience at a Korean news agency, boards a flight from Busan to Seoul. Just as the aircraft lifts off, a nationwide emergency alert suddenly appears on every passenger’s phone. Cut off from all networks in midair, fear and confusion spread as passengers clash over what the message means. Even the captain hesitates between continuing or turning back. As tension builds inside the isolated cabin, Ji-min tries to restore order among the increasingly panicked crowd.

Railbound

Directed by: Jonathan Perry

Run Time: 10 minutes 0 seconds, United States

Premiere status: World Premiere

Railbound is a poetic film built directly from the photographs of the prolific American photographer, Mike Brodie. The film pushes the boundaries of generative AI, indistinguishable from live action footage. Told through the reflective voice of a father chasing the memory of motion — a youth spent riding the rails, living between places, before the world ever decided who he was.

EVIL MASK

Directed by: Wonjin Kim

Run Time: 14 minutes 30 seconds, South Korea

Premiere status: World Premiere

In 1920, a boy loses his parents and his sight to the demon Oni, brought into Joseon by the Japanese army to erase the nation’s spirit. Years later, he is granted power by the gods of Joseon and becomes a blind shamanic sculptor, carving the forms of demons that emerge from the darkness with his fingertips. As folk faith is trampled, he prepares a final resistance — sealing the Oni through sacred masks. Though he loses everything, the solidarity of the people and the united strength of shamans across the land lead him to complete the ultimate ritual of Ak-tal, risking his life in a last exorcising ceremony for Joseon’s fate.

What Remains

Directed by: Vadim Lasca

Run Time: 7 minutes 16 seconds, United States / Venezuela

Premiere status: Phoenix Premiere

What Remains is an apocalyptic mockumentary set in a dystopian near-future, constructing a stark portrait of the civilizational crisis unfolding in our world today. It is the present on the brink, where climate collapse, technological obsession, and social indifference converge in a scenario of self-destruction, all under the clinical gaze of an artificial intelligence documenting the process. Yet in the silence that follows the ruin, a fragile glimmer of hope emerges from the cracks of the system.

August 32nd

Directed by: Yunbin AN

Run Time: 15 minutes 0 seconds, South Korea

Premiere status: North America Premiere

Sejin, a boy on the verge of adolescence, is taken by his mother to spend the summer at his grandmother’s secluded mountain home. In the languid stillness of the countryside, time seems to stretch without end—until a girl named Heemin suddenly steps into his world.

Imagine

Directed by: Augustus Boettcher

Run Time: 7 minutes 44 seconds, Germany

Premiere status: Arizona Premiere

After encountering a burnt down clearing, a young girl imagines if fireflies rebuilt the forest.

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Host or Publisher Chandler International Film Festival