Turkey's Adana Golden Boll (Altın Koza) International Film Festival ran a competition for short films made with artificial intelligence this year. After its ten finalists were screened, the directors stayed on stage to tell the audience how they made them, what the tools offer independent filmmakers and where they draw ethical lines, Evrensel reported on 1 October.
The subjects ranged widely. Bora Yavuz Subaşı's "Yüce Sezar!" satirises a feudal provincial order through absurd humour, uses a rooster as a stand-in for any power that wants a statue of itself, and borrows from his grandmother's mischievous character. Barış Fert said "Gece Yarısı, Benimle" is often compared to Kafka's Gregor Samsa but began as a political idea about artists in today's Turkey. Hazar Vurgun Çağıldıyan made "İzler" out of anger at a dog being shot and the court cases over stray animals that followed.
Several directors explained how far they let the software go. Ulaş Baltacı generated the images for "Sanatorium Poetica" but wrote its poetry and dialogue himself. Mustafa Savaş, who comes from cartoons, drew "Lekesiz" by hand and used AI for animation and script editing, paid for with cheap Meta and Google credits. Kaan Atilla Taşkın said "Son Dodo" took seven and a half months, and that he rebuilt a 40-minute rough cut when newer models arrived. Melik Külekci filmed a story he wrote ten years ago as "İnsan Çiftliği" and archives every prompt in case of copyright disputes, which set off a debate in the room about AI and exploitation.
What the panel agreed on was cost. Hiring a crew and cast and paying for sets the usual way is close to impossible for independent directors, they said, so scripts stay on the shelf for years. They chose AI because it gets those stories on screen without that money.
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