A panel at the Busan International Film Festival put generative AI in filmmaking in front of emerging Asian creators this month. Netflix executives and filmmakers told the session that the technology has by now been used on roughly 300 Netflix titles, a figure the main outlet attributes to The Hollywood Reporter's account of the event.
The session, "AI in Filmmaking: New Tools, New Possibilities", was part of Creative Asia, the Netflix and Motion Picture Association programme staged with the festival and the AFCNet network. It ran on 10 October at Dongseo University's Centum Campus. Speakers were Sung Q Lee, Netflix's senior director of production for Asia-Pacific, Kimball Thurston, chief technology officer of Weta FX, and the Korean director Kang Yoon-sung, with critic Youn Sung-eun moderating. One of the outlets renders Lee's name in a different Korean romanisation, so the spelling here follows the two that agree.
The uses described were practical rather than flashy: previsualisation, production design and set-dressing ideas, editing and visual effects. Netflix India's "Glory" was cited for AI-built crowd shots. Kang said AI trimmed the cost of "The Gulf of Aden" by as much as 40 percent, and that his "Run to the West" leaned on it heavily for compositing and for its creatures.
The panel's shared view was that AI can bring costly, ambitious projects within financial reach, yet realistic imagery alone does not supply emotional depth. Netflix's line, as reported, is that the tools support human judgment instead of replacing it, with people making the final creative decisions.
Still from Possible Love, the Lee Chang-dong film whose cinematographer gives a Creative Asia masterclass
Image: Variety Australia
Creative Asia is Netflix's programme for emerging Asian creators, run with the festival, AFCNet and the MPA. Earlier editions took place at Busan and at the JAFF festival in Indonesia, and Netflix describes this one, the third, as a place where newcomers can meet working industry experts and pick up insight.
The 2026 edition adds hands-on workshops to the masterclasses and industry discussions, which Netflix says is meant to help young creators build practical skills. Among the masterclasses is one from the cinematographer of Lee Chang-dong's "Possible Love". Separately, the festival's InnoAsia market programme carries further AI sessions, so the topic runs beyond this one panel.
Two caveats come with the coverage. Two of the three outlets wrote their pieces as previews in mid-September, before the event, and the post-event account is a rewrite of another outlet's report. It holds no direct panellist quotes, so the detail above is only what the coverage supports. The programme's own aims are given as an unnamed Netflix official stated them in the previews, so they are the company's description of itself, not an outside assessment.