HKUST AI Film Festival

HKUST AI Film Festival at Hong Kong
April 19, 2025

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/cyGv6G4yC1nCZDYY7
Discussion and Connect with Others: https://discord.gg/8xQ2g8Sskp

About

The Division of Arts and Machine Creativity at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is thrilled to announce the 1st HKUST AI Film Festival. Through this festival, we’d like to spark more discussions on AI's transformative impact on filmmaking. The past year has been marked by a surge in research breakthroughs such as SORA and Kling, and in numerous filmmaking support tools, like Runway and Pika. We believe this festival serves as a hub for dialogue, driving the narrative on how AI is shaping and will shape the future of the cinematic landscape. We invite you to join this essential conversation at the upcoming AI film festival.

It is also supported by Computational Visual Media Conference 2025, MIT AI Filmmaking Hackathon 2025, Stanford AI ShortFest 2025 and Asia Digital Art Exhibition 2025

Directions

The AI Film Festival will take place at Shaw Auditorium in the HKUST campus, Sai Kung District, Hong Kong SAR.

Map to Shaw Auditorium, HKUST

Detailed Program

Schedule Hong Kong Time
2025-04-19
Warm-up Session  08:30 AM - 09:00 AM
Opening Remarks 09:00 AM - 09:20 AM
Keynote by Maneesh Agrawala 09:20 AM - 10:20 AM
Break 10:20 AM - 10:40 AM
Theme 1  -  AI Creative Products and Pipelines
Session Chair: Anyi Rao
    Keynote I by Chris Williamson and Jacky Zheng
    Evolving Relationship Between AI Technologies and Creative Industries

    Keynote II by Terry Lam
    Re-Archiving of Local Filmmaking Dataset for Future AI

    Keynote III by Jiaju Ma
    MoVer: Motion Verification for Motion Graphics Animations

    Roundtable Discussion, plus Sandy Peng 
10:40 AM - 12:00 PM
Break 12:00 PM - 14:00 AM
Theme 2  -  AI Influence on Artists and the Film Industry
Session Chair: Alex Ma
    Keynote I by Brian Conner
    Lights, Camera, Algorithm: The AI Revolution in Filmmaking

    Keynote II by Lucas Mariano
    AI in Journalism and Broadcast Content: Opportunities and Ethical Challenges

    Keynote III by Tony Ngai
    AI for Filmmaking

    Keynote IV by Victor Wong
    Artificial Intelligence and the Physical Art World

    Roundtable Discussion
14:00 PM - 15:00 PM
Break 15:00 PM - 15:10 PM
Special Theme 15:10 PM - 15:50 PM
Theme 3  -  AI and A New Generation of Creators (in Mandarin) AI與新一代創造者
Session Chair: Zeyu Wang (王澤宇)
    Keynote I by Lei Wang (王雷)
    寫意: AI生成國畫影像的随機性與半控制狀態

    Keynote II by Anna Yu (于博柔)
    Dance in Life —— 2025 MIT AI Film Hack

    Keynote III by Yuying Tang (唐譽瑛) and Zheng Wei (魏徵)
    Lost in the Mirror

    Keynote IV by Zhixiang Ye (葉志祥)
    AI時代的導演進化
15:50 PM - 16:30 PM
Theme 4  -  AI, Art, Creativity, and Ethics (in Mandarin) AI, 藝術,道德與倫理
Session Chair: Xian Xu (徐嫻)
    Keynote I by Xiongjie Gao (高雄傑)
    演算法向善與情感表達:科技倫理下的創作生態重建

    Keynote II by Ya-Lun Tao (陶亞倫)
    AI與意識副本

    Keynote III by Jun Fei (費俊)
    新媒體藝術與人工智能: 創作者的邊界

    Roundtable Discussion, plus Maojun Zeng (曾茂軍) and Yuyi Zhou (周煜壹) 
16:30 PM - 17:30 PM
Screening 18:20 PM - 19:20 PM



Judge

Ting Cao
Dean of Photography
Professor
Beijign Film Academy
Tim Cheung
SIGGRAPH Asia25 Computer Animation Festival Chair
Animation Director, Producer
James She
Media Artist
Associate Professor
HKUST
Richard Taylor
Filmmaker
Founder of Weta
Lord of Rings, Avatar
Sophie Wang
Director of AI Innovation Business
Shanghai Film Co., Ltd.
David Yip
Director, Producer
Assistant Professor
HKUST


Panel

Maneesh Agrawala
Professor, Director of Brown Institute of Media Innovation
Stanford University
Brian Connor
VFX Supervisor, Oscar Awardee
AMPAS & VES Member
Dune 1, Catch 22, Godzilla
Jun Fei
Professor of Art and Technology
Central Academy of Fine Arts
Xiongjie Gao
Head of Film and Television
Professor
Central Academy of Drama
Terry Lam
Dean of Film and Television
Professor
Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Alex Ma
Associate Professor
Arizona State University
Former Producer, Warner Bros
Jiaju Ma
PhD and Creator
Stanford University
Lucas Mariano
2D Animator
Motion Designer
ex New York Times
Tony Ngai
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
Asia Pacific Governor
Sandy Peng
Product Builder and Content Creator with 10M+ Views
Yuying Tang
PhD and Creator
HKUST
Ya-Lun Tao
Professor of Art and Technology
National Tsing Hua University
Lei Wang
Dean of Animation
Professor
Communication University of China
Zheng Wei
PhD and AICG Producer
HKUST
Chris Williamson
3D Artist, Technical Advisor
Weta
Bladerunner 2049, Dune 1
Victor Wong
Director
Senior VFX Producer
vfxNova
Zhixiang Ye
Director
AIGC Producer
Anna Yu
Media Artist, Researcher, Dancer
Co-Chair, MIT AI Film Hack
Co-founder, MYStudio
Maojun Zeng
Board Director, AMC Theatres
Former President
Wanda Film & TV Group
Jacky Zheng
Art Director
Production Designer
Weta



Participants from



Sponsors




Call for Submission

Organizers

Anyi Rao
HKUST
Xian Xu
HKUST
Tony Zhang
HKUST
Longji Huang
HKUST(GZ)
Zeqian Zhang
CityU
Jean-Peïc Chou
Stanford
Hui Ye
HKUST
Zeyu Wang
HKUST(GZ)
Hongbo Fu
HKUST