Sanxingdui: Future Past

Name: Sanxingdui: Future Past
Released: 2026-10-23
Duration: 1 h 40 min

Bona Film Group (博纳影业)2026100 min

AIPopDB score: 53/100
Format: Film
Year: 2026
Views: 51.4K

Synopsis

Mysterious symbols on bronzeware from the ancient Sanxingdui culture turn out to hide a binary code, something that, as the story puts it, could not have come from 3,000 years ago. That puzzle links the ancient Shu civilization to a future in which a super AI has spread across the world.

In that future, humans increasingly hand their decisions over to algorithms, and a systemic crisis follows. Famous Sanxingdui artifacts, among them the Bronze Sacred Tree, the Bronze Standing Figure and the Bronze Masks, appear inside the futuristic sci-fi setting.

The pages describe the film as a sci-fi thriller exploring humanity in a future shaped by AI. They name no characters and give no further plot, and all characters are original digital creations rather than replicas of real actors.

Last Updated 27 October 2026

About the Show

Sanxingdui: Future Past is a 100-minute Chinese-language feature from Bona Film Group, made by its AIGMS division. It opened in cinemas across China on 23 October 2026 with an official screening license, and AFP reported more than 10,000 opening-day screenings on ticketing platform Maoyan.

Bona describes it as China's first hyper-realistic theatrical film to use AI throughout production; AFP, reporting Bona's account, calls it China's first fully AI-generated feature film, with all actors, their voices and the backdrops AI-generated. Bona says the creative concept, narrative and final artistic decisions stayed with human professionals, and that the team calibrated details such as micro-expressions frame by frame for consistency.

According to the reporting, a team of roughly 100 people worked for about two years, producing more than 1.2 million source images and over 100 full-film iterations. A system called Infinite Canvas, developed by Boka Film Cloud, unified scripts, storyboards, characters, sets and lighting. Bona says the budget exceeded 10 million yuan.

Before release it appeared at the Cannes Film Festival and the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market, where an international concept trailer was shown. On opening day, presales were about 80,000 yuan, and Maoyan forecast total takings below 150,000 yuan, per AFP.

Fun Facts

Infinite Canvas system: Bona says its Infinite Canvas system, developed by Boka Film Cloud, kept scripts, storyboards, characters, sets and lighting consistent across the production.; Source: technode.com
Scale of the workflow: The team reportedly generated over 1.2 million source images and ran more than 100 full-film iterations across about two years.; Source: technode.com
Weak box office: AFP reports opening-day presales of about 80,000 yuan, with Maoyan forecasting total takings under 150,000 yuan against a budget Bona puts above 10 million yuan.; Source: manilatimes.net