SOUTH KOREAN film industry professionals have scored a new and once more created a headway in the international film stage.
This time, one of the indefatigable Korean film honchos, Shin Chul, Festival Director of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), Asia’s biggest fantastic film fest, represented not only his country but the continent as well when he recently talked in the panel discussion about the prospects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the progress of modern filmmaking at Cannes Next, a program of the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival Film Market in Cannes, France.
The dialogue was part of the “AI in Asia” program at Village Innovation, the technology and innovation hub of Cannes Film Market.
Aside from being a BiFan rep, Shin was at the Croisette as partner of Marché du Film’s Fantastic 7 where he, as a filmmaker, has been helping shape a pivotal turning point in the Korean film industry.
During the “Ai-Native Storytelling” session co-hosted by Cannes Next and Eros Innovation, he shared BiFan’s AI-forward strategy and offered a roadmap for the future of the movie industry to filmmakers all over the world.
Shin reflected on his experience at the French Riviera four years ago where he proposed a redefinition of cinema. At the time, the possibility of filmmaking with AI was controversial but these days, the employment of digital enhancement is apparently the more acceptable thing to mix art with business.
“How do we turn AI into art and business using the rapidly advancing power of AI?” Chul posed to the audience and to his fellow panelists that included Christina Caspers-Röhmer, Managing Director of Trixter, one of Europe’s major VFX studios, Ridhima Lulla, Co-Founder and Co-President of Eros Innovation and Martin Madsen, VFX Supervisor.
“AI is the answer to expanding imagination beyond budget limits,” said Shin without batting an eyelash in a special coverage by BiFan at the 79th Cannes.
The BiFan leadership has indicated a proud introduction to an AI category for the first established fantastic film festival in the world and succeeded in the implementation of AI Film Education Center Bucheon in the past years.
This writer was witness to the enthusiasm and cooperation of multiracial filmmakers who were enrolled in the discipline and hooked to the application of AI in their film projects two years ago.
Over the course of 2025, the Center has produced 2,901 graduates and created 485 short films.
Through the years, BiFan has consistently valued AI by, according to BiFan press briefs, “establishing systems for talent discovery and education, support AT filmmakers, distribution frameworks, and copyright acquisition and protection for AL creators.”
Shin has a suggestion and vision for the burgeoning effects of digital technology. “AI must be used for peace, not for war,” he emphasized.
“Together with BIFAN, which is building the world’s fairest and most dynamic film ecosystem, let us complete the AI film value chain,” he encouraged the attendees.
After a successful participation in an intensive global schedule at Cannes, Shin is eyeing another grand opening this year of BiFan.
According to the festival committee, the global competitiveness of K-genre cinema and the future-oriented vision confirmed at Cannes are set to come alive in Bucheon this summer.
The 30th BIFAN will take place across Bucheon City for 11 days from July 2 to July 12, 2026.