Entirely AI-written movie to show at Asia short film festival; other entries focus on Ukraine and Palestinian conflicts

The Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia will this year for the first time show a movie made completely by AI, the animated film The Artificial Conjuring Circle

Conflict is also a theme, with one film focusing on a Palestinian refugee camp and another showing phone footage of a Russian missile attack in Ukraine

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A still from the French short film Palestine Islands, one of the films from the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2024, which will also feature an entirely AI-written film for the first time in its history. Photo: Committee for Short Shorts

Published: 11:16am, 7 May 2024Updated: 2:40pm, 7 May 2024

This year’s Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia will shine a spotlight on global issues amid ongoing conflicts and disasters – and show its first movie entirely written by artificial intelligence (AI).

With the theme “Illuminate your Life”, organisers are seeking to use the selected films to foster empathy, discovery and inspiration among viewers.

Among the more pertinent pieces is Palestine Islands, a French film that centres on a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank.

The film tells the story of a young Palestinian girl who embarks on a mission to make her blind grandfather believe the Israeli wall separating their refugee camp from his native land of Jaffa has fallen.

A promotional poster for Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2024. Photo: Committee for Short Shorts

“We wanted this film to be a utopian tale, between drama and comedy,” said co-director Nour Ben Salem.

In the smartphone category, Siren! Air Raid Alert! Head for Cover!, a five-minute Ukrainian documentary made from footage shot by survivors of a Russian missile attack on Kyiv in October 2022, illuminates another prominent global conflict.