AI, Virtual, Digital Worlds in Locarno Film Festival Focus

Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, is a hot-button topic these days — in Hollywood and beyond. It may not come as a surprise then that the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday, will feature AI- and digital technology-themed movies in various parts of its lineup.

Even in unveiling the program for Locarno77 last month, Giona A. Nazzaro, the Swiss festival’s artistic director, mentioned “the whole discussion around artificial intelligence” as one of the themes featured across the fest. “We didn’t seek out these themes. We didn’t say ‘okay, we are going to have a festival focusing on certain themes’,” he emphasized though. Instead, after finishing the selection for Locarno 2024, his team noticed overarching and underlying subjects. “The festival is a catalyst for major dialogue, intensive exchanges,” Nazzaro concluded.

What might surprise festivalgoers is how different the filmmakers’ approaches to digital worlds and AI are. They range from a narrative feature to a feature documentary all the way to a movie using AI images.

Below is THR‘s look at three key films that will get their world premieres at Locarno and that tackle questions of AI and virtual worlds.

Real by Adele Tulli — screening in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente section, which puts the spotlight on first and second features.

Italian filmmaker Tulli (Normal) is back. Her new 83-minute film may take viewers to such places as South Korea. But it does so to explore topics that viewers in many parts of the world will be familiar with, or at least be aware of.

“Real aims to delve into the ongoing metamorphoses triggered by our relationship with digital technologies, through an associative mosaic of stories, shedding light on different aspects of living in a hyper-connected reality,” explains a description on the Locarno festival’s website.

Nazzaro in his lineup press conference called it “an essayist documentary film about artificial intelligence, the internet,” and more.

“My intention is to offer the audience a kaleidoscopic, immersive, thought-provoking visual journey exploring how it feels to be human in the digital age, trying to raise critical questions on some of its disquieting aspects and crucial challenges,” Tulli tells THR.

“There is no doubt that some of these innovations are reshaping our world,” she also highlights. Her goal therefore was to “raise questions about the profound social transformations of the digital era.”

Check out a clip from Real below.

Electric Child by Simon Jaquemet — screening in Locarno’s Piazza Grande, the big square in the Swiss town, which seats 8,000 people.

“Sonny and Akiko’s joy upon the arrival of their first child quickly turns to panic when their doctor gives them unimaginable news,” reads a description of the 118-minute-long film, hinting at the difficult decisions and drama that follow. “Desperate, Sonny considers using his experiment on an AI super-intelligence to prove the doctors wrong, but every action he takes risks a troubling and dangerous reaction.”

Nazzaro described the movie this way: “It’s a science fiction film. It deals with artificial intelligence … but not only that — it’s a thriller.”

The filmmaker himself, in a note, explains: “As a self-confessed super-nerd, coder, and father myself, I want Electric Child to explore humanity’s hubris at the emotional breaking point where technology meets the fragility of the human condition.”

Talking to THR, Jaquemet shares that he has long had an interest in AI and finally made a film about it. “I didn’t expect it to get so big. There was really this whole explosion of generative AI with ChatGPT and all that,” he explains. “So for me, it’s also surprising how fast it’s happening and how intense it is. It’s very interesting. And at the same time I think, ideally, this film should have been ready a year ago or two years ago. It would be even more kind of prophetic.”

The topic in focus also let the filmmaker to some new creative approaches. For example, certain scenes in Electric Child he “tried to write really from the perspective of the AI,” Jaquemet explains.

Telepathic Letters (Cartas Telepáticas) by Edgar Pêra — screening in Locarno’s out-of-competition program.

Prolific Portuguese filmmaker and artist Pêra (The Nothingness Club, Magnetick Pathways) has often experimented with cutting-edge technology, including 3D. And he has earned a reputation for surreal, experimental works.

In line with that, he is sure to cause debate and turn heads again with his latest movie, which is about U.S. science, fantasy, and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessoa and their “invisible links.”

“Lovecraft and Fernando Pessoa were among the most influential writers of the first half of the 20th century,” highlights a film description. “They didn’t know each other, despite having lived at the same time, but there is an enormous complementarity between their lives and works.”

So how did Pêra decide to explore their thinking and philosophical connections? He created his new film with AI images. “Every time there’s something new, I’m interested in it, because I see cine-technology mostly as a set of toys,” he tells THR about his passion for trying out new technologies. “I see cameras as toys in my hands, and once a friend of mine said about my movies that I think with my hands.”

In the case of his latest movie, AI became his focus after he tried a more traditional approach. “Telepathic Letters started as a documentary with some scenes by the actors of The Nothingness Club, but I didn’t feel a challenge, it was just a continuation of the same process, but with a much smaller budget,” Pêra shares. But in the fall of 2022, “I started to write prompts to create images, and within a year my life changed: I was sucked into a vortex of hundreds of thousands of images.”

The 70-minute result promises to be a hell of a ride. Check out the trailer below to get a sense of some of the visual and sound experiences that await you.