The World AI Film Festival’s Seoul awards ceremony drew about 1,500 guests on March 6 at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, organizers said, as filmmakers and officials highlighted how artificial intelligence is reshaping production and storytelling.
WAIFF (World AI Film Festival), co-founded by Institut EuropIA and Marco Landi, is described by organizers as the first and largest international network focused on the convergence of film and AI. With its main event based in France and editions expanding to Brazil, Japan and China, Seoul was selected as the first host city in Asia, the festival said.
Aju Media Group participated as a media partner, covering changes in storytelling and the creative ecosystem in the AI era, according to the organizers.
Opening the ceremony, Landi said one of the festival’s main goals is “discovering talent, protecting their rights and compensation.” He added that the five finalists from the Seoul edition are scheduled to be screened at a festival in Cannes, France.
Ha Jung-woo, senior secretary for AI Future Planning at the presidential office, called it meaningful that the “experimental venue” where AI and creativity meet opened in Seoul as the first Asian edition. He said AI is rapidly expanding beyond industry and society into culture and the arts, and in film and content it is becoming “a completely new driving force” that broadens how creators work and how stories are told.
Ha stressed that the value of the technology lies in human imagination and creativity. “AI is not something that replaces creation, and it should not become that,” he said, calling it a collaborator that expands creators’ possibilities and a partner for exploring new forms of expression. He added that it can help people with ideas create new forms of content media and broaden access to diverse content.
The festival also drew attention for its international jury. Animator and producer Nelson Shin (Shin Neung-gyun), a juror, presented an excellence award and spoke about the pace of change.
“I was very scared while doing this event,” Shin said. He recalled that after about 100 years of making films with cameras and projectors, Steve Jobs made “Toy Story” digitally, and “suddenly the workforce making films was reduced to one-twentieth.” “And now, in less than 20 years, AI has come,” he said, adding he worried there might be a way to stop it. During judging, he said, he could not tell what was shot with a camera and was surprised that “AI did everything.” “Now, in this era when anyone can make a work, everyone here is a writer,” he said.
Jury chair Son Seung-hyun, CEO of Westworld, said WAIFF tours globally from Sao Paulo to Seoul, Kyoto and Cannes to explore new relationships among film, AI and human creativity. He said the Seoul participants were not only using new technology but also pioneering a new visual language.
Son said the jury sought to avoid entries centered on technical spectacle or fully automated results. “What we focus on is not the amount or flashiness of AI, but the creator’s intent, meaningful energy, and reflection and originality embedded in the technology,” he said.
He outlined four criteria: vision over perfect execution; guided intent over automation, including whether at least three AI tools were combined with clear purpose; meaning over short-term trends, seeking messages with long-term cultural impact; and the creator’s agency, judging how clearly the human voice came through.
The grand prize went to director Kim Won-kyung’s “Could Know, Could Not Know.” “I came up from Seogwipo in Jeju,” Kim said after the win. “I never expected this, and I’m truly grateful. While working as a marketer, I used AI only as a work tool, but I was able to make the content I had really dreamed of and even receive an award, and my mind went blank. I will accept this with gratitude, thinking of it as the start of the second act of my life.”
Other winners included the excellence award for “LOSING, About the Time Remaining” (directed by Lim Da-young and Lee Sang-hoon); an encouragement award for “The Dog, the Octopus and Me” (directed by AI Revolution); the AI advertising award for “Magic Mirror” (directed by Ji Seong-min); the AI shorts series award for “The More You Swallow” (directed by Lee Eun-young and Son Hee-song); the AI screenplay award for “Ticket to Neverland” (directed by Heo Min, Son Min-ho and Kim Han-in); the AI soundtrack award for “Arca” (directed by Lee Su-yeol); the AI Film Youth Award for “Manin” (directed by A-Frame); and the AI jury award for “Gum” (directed by Hwang Ha-min).
On March 7, a day after the awards, the “WAIFF Seoul 2026 Creative Intelligence Forum” at Lotte Cinema World Tower addressed issues including production innovation using generative AI, next strategies for K-content, copyright protection and ethical guidelines. Organizers said WAIFF Seoul 2026 concluded successfully, positioning AI-driven creation as a step toward a sustainable industry ecosystem rather than a one-off event.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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