The Fracture

The Fracture is a short film written and directed by Jacopo Reale, released in 2026 and running about 12 minutes (738 seconds on its YouTube upload). It was produced by Animatix and Labyrinth Studio, and Animatix put it on its YouTube channel in March 2026, where the film can be watched in full.

Reply, which owns Labyrinth Reply, describes it as created entirely using artificial intelligence tools. The Animatix description says it was produced entirely inside Animatix, the company's AI video production environment, and that it was made on animatix.ai. Reale told Qazinform the work took more than a month and combined a generative image and video pipeline with conventional editing, sound design and mixing; he said editing and narrative structure stay rooted in traditional filmmaking. A behind-the-scenes video from Animatix says characters and costumes were built from historical portraits after period research, with stylised cinematography for key dramatic moments. None of the pages names the specific AI models used.

Reale is an Italian filmmaker and AI creative director at Labyrinth Reply. He says he spent more than 15 years in film editing before moving to generative AI, and co-founded Labyrinth Studio AI with Giacomo Cannelli and Alessandro Risuleo. He calls The Fracture perhaps his fifth or sixth AI film and the most ambitious his team has attempted. The credits list Cannelli and Risuleo as AI creative directors, Aurora Cecchini as AI designer, Patrik Gallo and Sylvain Montreuil as executive producers, and Tiziano Lamberti of Sounzone on sound design, editing and final mix, with additional sound design by Dario Tatoli.

The film won the Best Direction award at the inaugural Astana AI Film Festival 2026, held in Astana on 1-3 October. Zakon.kz lists it among the winners of the festival's five special categories. Reply also says it was a finalist at the World AI Film Festival in Cannes and at AI Film Fest Monaco. The Astana jury judged entries on their use of AI tools, artistic vision, storytelling, overall coherence and how well the technology fit the creative concept.