Google DeepMind, Amazon Web Services, Kling AI Join Busan Market Tech Program InnoAsia
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), run alongside the Busan International Film Festival, has unveiled the full line-up for InnoAsia 2026, its programme exploring the crossover between film and emerging technology. Confirmed AI and tech participants include Amazon Web Services, Google DeepMind, Kling AI, Alibaba Cloud, BytePlus and Netflix's Eyeline Studios, alongside numerous production, localisation and exhibition startups, reflecting Busan's ambition to position itself as a hub connecting Asian content creators with global technology firms and investors.
The programme runs across three tracks covering technology proof-of-concept and investment, creators and production, and industry and policy. Highlights include Cinema by Brand 2026, a new competition with marketing agency Innocean and the Producers Guild of Korea inviting 20-minute short films based on Hanwha Group's "Space Solar Power", with winners announced during ACFM; the InnoAsia Startup Demo Jam, featuring nine companies pitching AI and virtual-production technologies to investors; and new AWS Awards for startups, offering cloud vouchers via a proof-of-concept selection process. Seven Korean startups, chosen through an open call with the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and AWS, will showcase tools spanning casting, screenplay analysis, AI dubbing and audience-response measurement, while international participants include Berlinale-linked lighting startup Lux AI and Taiwan's imCore.
- Busan's ACFM unveils full InnoAsia 2026 tech and film programme line-up.
- AWS, Google DeepMind, Kling AI and Alibaba Cloud among key participants.
- New Cinema by Brand contest offers films based on Hanwha's solar power project.
New here? Start with this
Google DeepMind, Amazon Web Services and Chinese AI video firm Kling AI are among the technology companies joining a programme called InnoAsia, part of the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), which runs alongside the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. The event brings together film and TV professionals from across Asia with big technology firms, cloud providers and AI startups, reflecting the growing role artificial intelligence and other digital tools now play in making, translating and distributing screen content.
Busan, a major South Korean port city, has long hosted one of Asia's leading film festivals and its associated industry market. InnoAsia is a newer strand of that market focused specifically on technology, aiming to connect Asian filmmakers and production companies with investors and tech firms from Silicon Valley, China and elsewhere, while also supporting smaller startups working in areas such as AI casting, dubbing and audience analytics.
The wider significance is that AI tools are increasingly being tested and adopted across the film and TV industry, from scriptwriting to visual effects to marketing, and this has proved contentious among filmmakers and unions concerned about jobs, creative control and copyright. Programmes like InnoAsia illustrate how film markets are responding by formally showcasing these technologies and their backers to industry professionals, rather than leaving such developments to happen informally.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters see InnoAsia's expanded tech roster as a pragmatic and exciting evolution for a film market, arguing that AI and cloud tools like casting platforms, dubbing systems and cloud infrastructure can lower production costs, widen access for smaller Asian studios, and open new revenue and investment channels by connecting local creators directly with global technology giants. They view Busan's willingness to formalise this with dedicated tracks, awards and showcases as forward-thinking curation that keeps the festival market relevant as the industry itself changes, and as a genuine opportunity for homegrown startups to gain international visibility and funding they might not otherwise access.
The case against
Sceptics, including many working within the film industry, would counter that embedding major AI firms so prominently into a cultural festival's business programme risks normalising technologies that threaten actors', writers' and other creative workers' livelihoods and consent, echoing recent industry disputes over AI's role in filmmaking. They would argue that a festival market built to champion human storytelling and artistic craft should be cautious about giving equal billing to tools like biosignal audience analytics or AI-generated casting, fearing this prioritises corporate technology partnerships and efficiency over the creative and labour concerns of the filmmakers the market is meant to serve.
Full account
The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), which runs alongside the Busan International Film Festival, has confirmed the line-up for InnoAsia 2026, its strand devoted to the crossover between film-making and emerging technology. Organisers say the programme this year has been widened considerably, with Amazon Web Services, Google DeepMind, China's Kling AI and Alibaba among the major technology names taking part alongside a broader cast of start-ups and content companies. The stated aim is to build what ACFM describes as an ecosystem in which cinema and technology develop together, spanning everything from advertiser-funded film-making to the rapidly expanding microdrama sector.
One strand of the programme centres on branded film-making. ACFM is teaming up with the advertising and marketing agency Innocean to launch Cinema by Brand 2026, a competition overseen by the Producers Guild of Korea, which will handle selection and supervise production. The scheme is intended to move brand-funded film beyond conventional advertising, pairing corporate clients with film-makers from around the world to produce short films with genuine narrative substance. This year's edition asks entrants to develop 20-minute short films inspired by Hanwha Group's Space Solar Power initiative. Shortlisted projects will be announced in early September, ahead of a final pitching round later that month, with winners revealed during the market itself; successful teams receive production funding and a screening run in Korea and internationally. A dedicated market session is also planned to examine the growing role of branded content in the wider industry, with input expected from Hanwha, Innocean and participating directors.
Beyond the branded-content initiative, InnoAsia's technology roster for 2026 includes AWS, Google DeepMind, BytePlus, Alibaba's cloud arm, Netflix's visual-effects house Eyeline Studios, MegazoneCloud, OPIM Digital, the Korean Film Archive's effects-trading platform i.AM, Kling AI and Inshorts, alongside content-focused participants such as France's Atlas V, Korea's Mateo AI Studio, MBC C&I, Climax Studio, For Entertainment, K-Dragon and MooAm, plus the microdrama platforms Mango TV, FlickReels and Vigloo. Kling AI is set to co-host a pair of sessions with ACFM exploring generative tools in film-making and a networking event focused on production needs across Asia, while AWS and MegazoneCloud are introducing new awards tied to a start-up pitching competition, with winners chosen through a proof-of-concept process and rewarded with cloud computing credits.
InnoAsia is also strengthening its links with overseas markets and support schemes. Lux AI, a virtual-production lighting start-up associated with Berlin's European Film Market, is travelling to Busan along with Tanja Meissner, who directs Berlinale Pro and EFM, continuing a cross-market relationship between the two festivals. Through Taiwan's TAICCA School, the visual-effects efficiency start-up imCore will also take part. One outlet additionally notes that seven Korean start-ups covering the full production pipeline, including an AI-driven casting platform and other development tools, were selected through an open call run jointly with the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and AWS, though this detail was not addressed in the other report, whose account of that source cuts off before further specifics are given.
Where outlets differ
One report (Source 1) goes into more detail on the Korean start-up cohort selected via the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation/AWS open call, naming tools such as Lumicraft's Castlink casting platform, before the text is cut off; the other source omits this entirely.
Source 2 quotes ACFM's mission statement directly ("an innovative ecosystem in which cinema and technology co-evolve") and Cinema by Brand's official description, giving a more official/promotional framing, whereas Source 1 paraphrases the same ideas in its own words.
Source 1 specifies 'Alibaba Cloud' among the AI-tech participants, while Source 2 refers more generally to 'Alibaba' as one of the headline companies.
Source 1 frames Cinema by Brand's purpose more explicitly as elevating brand films beyond 'conventional commercials' towards narrative ambition, a contrast not spelled out as directly in Source 2.