Chinese streamer iQIYI used its iJOY conference in Shanghai on 23 September to announce more than 350 new titles for 2026-27, and founder Gong Yu said AI would shape how many of them are made. The plan, as China Daily reports it, runs on two tracks: AI as a tool inside live-action films, and AIGC films produced largely by the models themselves.
The first concrete pieces are already scheduled. Immortals Over Lovers, which iQIYI calls its first long-form AI seasonal drama with real actors, is due in the fourth quarter. A new Peter Pau iQIYI Film Theater, run with the Oscar-winning cinematographer, has picked nine AIGC projects from more than 100 international submissions, spanning adventure, action, romance and animation, with the aim of taking AI work from short experiments to commercial feature-film production. The company is also setting up seven service programmes to help creators find audiences and income.
Chief content officer Wang Xiaohui argued that the industry is changing fast and that cheaper, easier AI tools will widen who gets to make screen content and break up old production habits. The rest of the slate is conventional, including more than 40 long-form dramas and a Tang Wei-led adaptation of the classic The Peacock Flies Southeast.
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