The 1st Hong Kong International AI Film Festival is about to kick off in grand style. This is not only a feast of light and shadow art, but also an exploration connecting the future.
Artificial intelligence is comprehensively reshaping the production workflow, artistic expression and industrial ecosystem of film and television creation. Known as the "Hollywood of the East", Hong Kong boasts a mature film industry foundation, an international urban temperament, and an inherent gene for sci-fi storytelling, making it the ideal city to host a world-class AI film festival.
We focus on the core proposition: How will artificial intelligence reshape the narrative logic of cinema, innovate its production workflow, and define the next generation of image language? Here, the rationality of technology and the sensibility of art are deeply integrated, to jointly explore the infinite possibilities of the film industry.
Supported by the framework of the 4th Hong Kong International Cultural and Creative Expo (HKICCE), the 1st Hong Kong International AI Film Festival (2026) is officially launched. With the core philosophy of "With Algorithms as the Brush, Humanity as the Core; Light and Shadow Reborn, Dreams Never Fade", the festival creates a landmark AI film and television industry event integrating Awards Competition, Screenings & Salons, Industry Forums, Extreme Creation Challenge, Red Carpet Ceremony and Awards Gala Dinner. It aims to drive the in-depth integration of artificial intelligence and cinema, and set a global benchmark for AI image creation.
To ensure the authority and forward-looking nature of the selection, we have assembled a "dream team" judging panel spanning the film, technology and literature sectors. Its members include world-renowned film masters, trend-setting technology giants, industry leaders with a deep grasp of the sector's pulse, and groundbreaking technology pioneers driving industry transformation. This list represents the peaks of global cinematic art and cutting-edge technology facing each other, and embodies the festival's ambition to embrace the future and reshape industry standards.
(Jury members are listed in alphabetical order by surname initial)
Chairman of the Jury: Ren Zhonglun
Ren Zhonglun is Vice Chairman of the 10th Council of the China Film Association, and Chairman of the 8th Council of the Shanghai Film Association. He formerly served as Chairman of Shanghai Film Group, Director of Shanghai Film Studio, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), Chairman of the Jury for the 35th China Golden Rooster Film Awards, Chairman of the Jury for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Film Festival, Member of the National Committee of the China Writers Association, Chairman of the China Film Copyright Association, and Vice Chairman of the China Film Producers’ Association.
He has served as the producer and executive producer of more than 100 films, including The Climbers, 2046, Lust, Caution, Still Life, 1911 Revolution, The Message, among others; and as the producer and executive producer of dozens of TV series including Drawing Sword, Marshal Peng Dehuai, iPartment. He also worked as the screenwriter for films such as Out of Xibaipo, Lovely China and The Climbers. His works have garnered dozens of top honors, including the China Huabiao Film Awards, Golden Rooster Awards, Hundred Flowers Awards, Golden Horse Awards, Hong Kong Film Awards, as well as the China TV Golden Eagle Award and the China TV Drama Flying Apsaras Awards. Still Life and Lust, Caution successively won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, while titles including A Touch of Sin took home major awards at the Cannes Film Festival. For his personal achievements, he has won the Outstanding Producer Award at the China Huabiao Film Awards, the Outstanding Producer Award for Chinese TV Dramas, the China Cultural Industry Person of the Year Award, the Excellent Chairman of China Listed Companies Award, the Outstanding Film Leadership Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF), the Outstanding Film Figure Award at CineAsia, and the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).
Final Jury Member: Craig Caton
Craig Caton started out by doing makeup effects and animatronic puppets on movies such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Tremors, and Ghostbusters. Moving into the digital era, he worked as a character technical director for Disney Feature Animation and for DreamWorks Animation as a layout artist. Working for Stan Winston, Craig supervised the creation of a network of Silicon Graphics workstations that would later become a core piece of Digital Domain (DD), the world's second-largest visual effects company, when Stan partnered with James Cameron and Scott Ross. He is credited as one of the eight co-founders of Digital Domain. In 2025, he served on the jury for the "Bright Future of Humanity" Global AI Visual Works Call-for-Submissions, presented by China Media Group (CMG).
Final Jury Member: Cai Yujie
Cai Yujie is an Associate Professor and Dean of the School of International Education at Sichuan University of Media and Communications. He also serves as a Visiting Professor at Jeonju University in South Korea, a member of the Sichuan Film Association, and a council member of the Sichuan Education Association for International Exchange. He graduated from Chung-Ang University in South Korea and has long been engaged in international education in the film, television, and media sectors. He has independently produced and participated in the shooting of several feature-length and short films. He has also served as a curatorial committee member for the Korean region of the Taipei Film Festival and as the Korean curator for the 51st Asia-Pacific Film Festival. In recent years, he has focused on the systematic integration of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) technology into the talent training system for film and television creation. He has presided over 3 provincial and ministerial-level projects on AIGC film and television education and industry standards, led the AIGC Future Image Laboratory Program, and incubated multiple commercial works applying AI generation technology.
Final Jury Member: Fu Hongbo
Hongbo Fu is the Co-Founding Chairman of the HKUST AI Film Festival, Professor and Acting Head of the Division of Arts and Machine Creativity at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He worked at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, for over 15 years. He completed postdoctoral research training at the Imager Lab, University of British Columbia, Canada, and the Department of Computer Graphics, Max-Planck-Institute for Informatics, Germany. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2007, and a B.Sc. in Information Sciences from Peking University in 2002. His primary research interests fall in computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and computer vision. His research has led to over 200 scientific publications, including 80+ papers in top-tier graphics/vision journals and 40+ papers in top-tier graphics/vision/HCI conferences. His works have received a Silver Medal from the 2022 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days (IGED), the Best Paper Award at UIST 2019, and the Best Demo Awards at the Emerging Technologies program of SIGGRAPH Asia in 2013 and 2014. He was the Organization Co-Chair of Pacific Graphics 2012, the Program Chair/Co-chair of CAD/Graphics 2013 & 2015, SIGGRAPH Asia 2013 (Emerging Technologies) & 2014 (Workshops), Pacific Graphics 2018, Computational Visual Media (CVM) 2019, the Conference Chair of SIGGRAPH Asia 2016, Expressive 2018, and Pacific Graphics 2025, and most recently the Assistant Chair of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Technical Papers Program. He was on the SIGGRAPH Asia Conference Advisory Group and is currently Vice-Chairman of the Asia Graphics Association. He has served as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics Forum, Computers & Graphics, and The Visual Computer, and is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of Computer Graphics Forum. He is also a member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy.
Final Jury Member: Huo Tingxiao
Huo Tingxiao is Professor, Doctoral Supervisor. He is currently Vice Chairman of the China Film Association; President of the China Film Art Society; Member of the China Artists Association; Vice Chairman of the Film High and New Technology Professional Committee of the China Film Association; Vice Chairman of the Film and Television Producers Branch (Alliance) of the China Film Producers’ Association; and Vice Chairman of the Art Association of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT). He has participated in the production of more than 30 feature films, won the Best Art Direction Award at the China Golden Rooster Film Awards five times, and the Best Art Direction Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards twice. He has also received top honors including the Best Art Direction Awards from the Art Directors Guild (ADG) of the United States and the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) of the United States.
Final Jury Member: Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee is a renowned Hong Kong-based Director, Screenwriter, and Production Designer. He majored in Mass Communication and minored in Visual Arts at the University of Windsor in Canada, and returned to Hong Kong in 1984 to begin his career in film and television. In 1993, he won the Gold Award for Television Production at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards for the TV series The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Nine Yin Scriptures. In 1994, he made his directorial debut with the feature film The One-Armed Swordsman '94. He was named by the grandmaster of wuxia cinema Chang Cheh, alongside Chang Cheh himself and director Tsui Hark, as the representative figures of the old, middle, and young generations of wuxia filmmaking. In 1996, he was invited by Tsui Hark to direct Black Mask starring Jet Li. The film, with its sharp and distinctive style, pioneered the "heavy metal wuxia" genre and had a far-reaching influence on Hollywood films of the same type. In 1999, he directed Moonlight Express, starring Leslie Cheung and Takako Tokiwa, which was named the Best International Co-production Film of the Year by the China Film Administration. In 2000, he directed A Fighter's Blues, the landmark 100th film of Andy Lau. In 2005, he directed the police and crime epic Dragon Squad, starring Sammo Hung, Maggie Q, Michael Biehn, and Vanness Wu, which was listed by the National Museum of China as the first film to be permanently archived in its collection. In 2008, he adapted his own novel into the historical epic Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, the first Three Kingdoms-themed film in the new century, which won the Best Production Design Award at the Asian Film Awards that same year. In 2015, he directed Dragon Blade, starring Jackie Chan, Academy Honorary Award winner John Cusack, and two-time Academy Award winner Adrien Brody. It was the first Roman-themed film directed by an Asian filmmaker, and was invited as an official screening film at the Modena Film Festival in Italy. The film's original Roman-themed score is also widely recognized as the classic representative soundtrack for Roman-themed works. In 2016, he adapted the best-selling novel by Uncle Nanpai into the film Time Raiders, which grossed over 1 billion RMB at the box office and became the top-grossing film of the 2016 summer season. From 2017 to 2018, he directed Song of the Assassins, including a feature film and a 13-episode TV series, pushing the "heavy metal wuxia" style to its peak. In 2019, he directed The Climbers, a tribute film for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, starring Jackie Chan, Wu Jing, Zhang Ziyi, Hu Ge, and Jing Boran. The film grossed over 1 billion RMB at the box office and won the Outstanding Feature Film Award at the 18th China Huabiao Film Awards.
Final Jury Member: Lee Yong-kwan
Lee Yong-kwan is a senior South Korean film scholar, critic, curator, and educator. He is the co-founder, former Chairman (President), and long-term chief programmer of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), hailed as the "positioning father" of the festival. He led the establishment of its core tenets as a "non-competitive platform for Asian film solidarity and a window to the Korean film industry", developing it into one of Asia's most influential film platforms. He currently serves as an Emeritus Professor at Dankook University, and previously held professorships and dean positions at Kyungsung University and Chung-Ang University. He is the author of several theoretical works, including The History and Practice of Auteur Cinema, and led the translation of major works such as The History of World Cinema. He has long served as a jury member and advisor for major Asian film festivals and exhibitions, and has been appointed as a visiting professor at multiple Chinese higher education institutions, including the Central Academy of Drama and Beijing Normal University. He is a pivotal figure connecting academia, the film industry, and the festival circuit across Asia.
Final Jury Member: Rao Shuguang
Rao Shuguang is a Film Theorist, President of the China Film Critics Association, Former Secretary-General of the China Film Association, Former Director of the Film Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC), Research Professor (Level 2 Professor), and Doctoral Supervisor. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Peking University, Beijing Film Academy and other higher education institutions. He has served as a jury member on multiple occasions for the China Huabiao Film Awards, the China Golden Rooster Film Awards, the Silk Road International Film Festival, and the BRICS Film Festival, as well as a reviewer for the Artistic Discipline Projects of the National Social Science Fund of China.
Final Jury Member: Joy Zhu
Joy Zhu is Executive Vice President of the New York Film Academy (NYFA). She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MA and BA in English Language and Literature from Heilongjiang University. She is a Visiting Professor at Heilongjiang University, Beijing Film Academy, and Sichuan University of Media and Communications.
Dr. Zhu has spent more than two decades cultivating international collaborative partnerships. Her responsibilities at the New York Film Academy include overseeing international student recruitment and developing localization strategies for China. Prior to joining NYFA, she was a faculty member at Harbin Institute of Technology. She has also served as President of the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Development Association, an organization dedicated to advancing collaboration between American and Chinese educational institutions. As a scholar-practitioner, her academic interests include the internationalization of higher education and global engagement strategy. She is the co-author of Film and Television Education and Works Research, published by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Press, and Film and Television Production at Chinese and American Art Colleges, published by the Communication University of China Press.
Since the opening of the submission channel, the 1st Hong Kong International AI Film Festival has received numerous outstanding works from creators around the world, and we have deeply felt everyone's enthusiasm and expectation for AI image creation. In response to the enthusiastic appeals from the vast number of participating creators, to allow more excellent works with both creativity and high completion to have the opportunity to stand on this international stage, and to give creators who are still carefully polishing the details more time to finalize their films, the Organizing Committee has made the decision after careful deliberation: the official submission deadline for feature films of this year's festival is extended to 23:59 Beijing Time (UTC+8), May 11, 2026. We look forward to witnessing the birth of more wonderful works representing the highest level of contemporary AI image creation during the extended submission period.
Submission Link: https://i.ifeng.com/c/8sYRDl8LRgJ
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