AI-Driven Cinema: Discover the Revolutionary Film ‘I Am Popo’ Premiering May 21, 2026

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As generative AI continues to upend the film business, South Korea’s first feature-length movie produced entirely with generative AI is poised for a theatrical release. Where previous AI-driven projects largely functioned as short experiments or technical demos, this film distinguishes itself as a 64-minute narrative that has secured distribution for theaters.

Distributor Cinema Newone confirmed on May 9 that I Am Popo, directed by Kim Il-dong, will open on May 21 and released the main trailer. The film centers on Popo, an AI police robot designed to protect people, which preemptively kills an elementary school student based on a predicted future crime. The story tracks how a once-heroic system—lauded for predicting disasters and saving lives—can become a societal threat after a single calculation, creating a stark collision between algorithmic probability and human ethics.

Kim Il-dong, who created the Naver webtoon Kkabang and once topped roughly 90,000 entries on the U.S. social portal Newgrounds.com, wrote and directed the film. He relied on generative AI across planning, character design, and scene assembly. By structuring a compact, 64-minute narrative, the project aims to move beyond the short-form, proof-of-concept work that has characterized much of AI filmmaking to date.

The trailer opens with Popo in action, then shifts into scenes of street protests and courtroom confrontations after the student’s death. Built around the central question, “Can probability become judgment?,” the preview compresses the clash between cold technological logic and messy human emotion. Presenting the story from an AI’s perspective gives the film a legal-drama vibe with a markedly different point of view.

I Am Popo has already drawn attention abroad. It was officially invited to the special screenings section of the 23rd Amur Autumn International Film Festival in Russia—selected from more than 700 submissions across 70-plus countries—and was shown twice to sold-out audiences. Festivalgoers reported that, despite being AI-produced, the film effectively conveyed emotion. Domestically, it premiered at the Jeju AI International Film Festival (JAIFF) and later appeared at the Busan Asian Film Content Market (AFCM), attracting interest from industry professionals.

The global AI-film landscape is experimenting in diverse ways. In 2024, Gary Hurstwit’s Eno used AI to alter scene composition on each screening and premiered at the New York Film Forum. In South Korea, a live-action/AI hybrid titled The In-Between Realm, financed in part by KT and distributed by CJ CGV, opened in 2025. I Am Popo differs from those examples in being a feature-length work produced entirely with generative AI and without live actors. After its theatrical debut, the industry will be watching to see whether the film delivers the narrative depth and emotional resonance needed for cinema audiences—and whether it can move beyond mere technical novelty.