Hong Jeong-min wins award for AI short film made in three days

Director Hong Jeong-min received an Honorable Mention at the ILLUMINATE Film Festival in the United States for the 90-second animation "Stitching Hearts," which was completed in just three days using Seedance 2.0 and Suno. The work was one of 15 final nominees selected from 648 entries submitted from 67 countries.

Animation production company Studio Yeoubyeol announced that director Hong Jeong-min has won an award at an international film festival for a short animation completed in just three days using generative artificial intelligence (AI). Hong's work, "Stitching Hearts," received an Honorable Mention in the "2026 Oneness of Humanity Micro-Shorts Competition" hosted by the ILLUMINATE Film Festival in the United States.

According to the organizers, 648 entries from 67 countries were submitted to this competition, with 15 selected as final nominees. The approximately 90-second "Stitching Hearts" tells the story of a grandfather who lost a button filled with memories and finds comfort from the pain of loss when he receives a button from his grandchild, which triggers memories of a loved one. It appears that the compression of emotional lines within the short running time was viewed significantly during the judging process.

Hong wrote the scenario himself and produced the work using the video generation AI "Seedance 2.0" and the music generation AI "Suno." According to the company, the process from planning to completion took three days, with actual working time lasting approximately 10 hours. “Rather than how quickly a video can be made with AI, it was more important to convey what kind of emotions to the audience within a short time,” Hong said. “It is meaningful that a story made in Korea can reach overseas audiences through new technology.”

This result is an extension of the AI animation production methods that Hong has been steadily experimenting with. A major in stage play and directing, he has participated in various projects such as the film "Victory" and the Netflix animation "DOTA: Dragon's Blood," and has also been involved in 3D previsualization work, which implements all scenes and camera movements in advance for film and drama production. Since establishing Studio Yeoubyeol in 2024, he has been researching ways to integrate generative AI with existing production technologies.

Production costs were among the reasons Hong became interested in AI. The historical feature animation "Heukchi Sangji, the Ill-Fated General," which has been under development since 2017, received a Bronze Prize at the Chungnam Storytelling Competition and was produced as an Unreal Engine-based pilot through support from the Gwangju Information and Content Agency's Planning and Creation Studio in 2024. However, after determining that at least 7 billion won would be required to expand it into a theatrical feature, he continued his AI research, contemplating whether the production method itself could be changed.

Studio Yeoubyeol is also simultaneously working on securing its own intellectual property (IP) and commercialization. The cat character content "Manulnyang" recorded 16 million cumulative views for related content within one week of being posted on Instagram, and the number of followers increased by approximately 26,000 during the same period. Cumulative views have exceeded 40 million. Based on this, the company is reviewing plans to expand into character merchandising, licensing, and brand collaborations.

The company plans to apply the same production method to the original animation "Taekwondo Cat," which was selected for the Gwangju Information and Content Agency's Planning and Creation Studio content production support this year. The work, which tells the story of a human named Narae who loses her dream due to an accident and transforms into a tuxedo cat, combines Taekwondo action, comedy, and a growth narrative. Studio Yeoubyeol intends to first present short-form content utilizing the characters and worldview before producing a feature film, reflecting the response to the development of the work. The long-term goal is to complete an original theatrical AI hybrid feature animation with a production budget of 2 billion won or less.

Read the original (Korean)