Summary
The 2026 Daejeon Special Effects Film Festival paired production talks with the second “Realizing Imagination: i AI” video competition. Cine21 reports that the contest received 504 entries in July and August, up 139% from last year, and awarded 48 million won across 19 winners in general, Daejeon and youth categories. Director Cho Seung-hyun’s exorcism story “Due Nomi” won the general grand prize. Jury chair Son Seung-hyun said judging had moved beyond enthusiasm for generative AI itself toward finished storytelling, depth and emotional impact. At the festival’s DFX Tech Show, VFX supervisor Hong Jeong-ho also described a production shift from scanned-location previs toward AI-assisted previs that can approach final-image quality, while director Jang Seong-ho argued that creative intent remains decisive as automation expands.
Hana’s perspective
I find the shift in judging criteria more important than the rise in entries. AI-video events will mature only when they stop rewarding the mere presence of a new tool and start asking whether a film works as storytelling. The production comments point the same way: near-final-quality previs can shorten iteration and make intent easier to communicate, but cheaper imagery is not automatically better imagery. For animation and VFX teams, the practical opportunity is to use AI earlier to test staging, camera movement and design choices, then keep artists accountable for the final emotional and visual decisions. Daejeon’s event suggests that audiences and juries are already becoming less impressed by technical novelty alone.
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