Xu Zao’s animated feature *Light Pillar*, screening in the Hidden Dragons section at the Pingyao film festival, is still seeking distribution in China. It follows a film-studio worker who falls for a woman he meets in a virtual game and is drawn into a failed journey to the moon. Xu uses the story to explore changing forms of storytelling as AI advances, while arguing that the quality of the film itself matters most.

The film sets its virtual world in live action and depicts the real world through 2D animation, a choice Xu says saved time; the live-action scenes were shot in five days. Actor Da Peng plays and voices the lead, Zha, and also co-produced the film. Xu’s next project, *Easy, My Friend*, is at the script stage: it follows an illustrator who loses her drawing skills and job to AI, then rebuilds her life through rooftop gardening in northern China. Xu aims to finish the script by next July.