An AI movie without actors won the Dragon Award first

Introduction by Editor-in-Chief Wen Jing:國內The first theatrical movie produced using AI technology and obtained a public release license from the National Film Administration is about to be released. The AI ​​era of Chinese movies will begin on October 23 and accept the gaze of the market.

Recently, Bona Pictures officially announced that the movie “Sanxingdui: Days of Future Past” is officially scheduled to be released in theaters nationwide on October 23.

The film is 100 minutes long and all images are generated by AI. In the entire film, not a single real actor appears.

Bona gave it a confusing-sounding positioning – “Oriental hyper-realistic and intelligent co-creation feature-length film.” But what is really worth remembering is another identity: the first domestic theatrical film produced using AI technology and obtained a public release license from the National Film Administration.

Human-led, AI-executed

Set the time back to the end of 2023.

Bona Pictures has quietly established a new department – AIGMS Production Center, whose full name is “AI Generated Film Studio”, and has listed AI film and television dramas as one of the group’s four parallel business sectors. At that time, the big model had just learned to draw a few decent pictures, and few people understood what this abbreviation meant.

The person in charge of AIGMS later released a set of comparisons on an industry forum: the same lens, the 2024 version is “almost impossible to see”, while the 2026 version is already hyper-realistic. Two years is a watershed in picture quality, and even more so in patience.

In July 2024, the test short drama “Sanxingdui·Future Apocalypse” was launched first: 13 episodes, jointly produced with Douyin, with Dream AI as the chief technical support. It is the first AIGC science fiction short series in China to obtain an online drama distribution license.

The biggest doubt in the industry about AI movies has never been whether the technology works, but what to do if it gets out of control.

Bona has written the answer into the process: people take the lead and AI does the execution.

Each frame is generated by AI, but the creative initiation, narrative rhythm, historical research and humanistic value judgment are manually controlled by the AIGMS team composed of professional filmmakers and historical consultants – clearly rejecting “one-click production”.

AI is responsible for producing pixels, and humans are responsible for deciding which pixels can remain in the finished film.

It is not the kind of “AI patchwork video” imagined outside: there are also many complete scripts, storyboards, editing, sound effects, and post-production color correction systems. AI is a production tool throughout the entire process, not a director who makes decisions for others.

In the traditional film industry, hundreds of people support a studio; AI movies put location scouting, setting, lighting, and special effects into the same cloud production line. The types of work are decreasing, but the judgment is not.

It is worth noting that the costs did not disappear out of thin air, but were just redistributed: while saving actors’ salaries and real-life scene construction, manual screening, lens consistency refinement, archaeological research, sound performance, mixing and color grading are all indispensable. AI saves repetitive work and requires human judgment.

All digital images are original and do not replicate any real faces. Disputes over portrait rights and name rights should be avoided at the source.

The digital materials of characters, scenes and props are owned by Bona and can be reused in subsequent projects – make a film and accumulate assets.

The review path is also clear: the filing category is animated films, Yingdong Beizi [2025] No. 086, reviewed with reference to the unified domestic animation standards, and received the Dragon Label on April 28, 2026.

Technology has no privileges, and everyone is treated equally before standards.

Regulatory authorities have not closed the door to new technology, nor have they opened an unregulated window for it – this is precisely why it can get through.

As a result, a rare mirror image appeared in Chinese movies: a movie discussing the crisis of AI, produced by AI.

The official statement is very restrained – AI is both a production tool and an object of story discussion.

In the film, AI is a hidden danger; on the set, AI is productivity.

The same artificial intelligence plays two roles on and off the big screen – this kind of reflexivity has only been achieved by science fiction in the past.

The ancient Shu people carved riddles on bronze, but today people leave the work of solving riddles to calculations.

The mystery is still the same mystery, but the tools have been changed for three thousand years.

One account, one industry

先算賬。

According to public reports, the production cost of “Sanxingdui: Days of Future Past” is approximately 20 million yuan. Traditional science fiction blockbusters of the same level often start at 300 million yuan.

One tenth.

CICC estimates: The production process accounts for 70%-80% of the total cost of a movie. What AI compresses is precisely the largest piece.

CITIC Construction Investment directly identified: 2026 will be the “first year of AI cinema movies”.

The policy side is accelerating. At the “15th Five-Year Plan” themed press conference of the State Council Information Office on September 17, Liu Jianguo, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio and Television, introduced that artificial intelligence technology has been widely used in the planning, production, review, and broadcast of TV series, mini-series, variety shows, animations and other program types; at the end of August, Hunan Radio and Television launched the first AIGC long drama “Journey to the West”, and piloted a new model of “production, review, and broadcast at the same time.”

None of my colleagues were absent.

Chinese films have included AI in their strategic plans for the next five years, Huace Film and Television is producing high-quality AI drama series, Enlight Media has launched a self-developed AI tool platform, and the AI ​​micro-short drama “Happy Blue Ocean” has been launched.

Capital markets vote first. On September 28, the day after the official announcement, Bona Pictures hit the daily limit, closing at 6.36 yuan per share, with a market value of 8.742 billion yuan.

Let’s look at the financial report: In the first half of 2026, Bona’s revenue was 458 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 31.90%; the net loss was 169 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 84%. Cinema and theater chain business revenue was 361 million yuan, and film business revenue was 99.5384 million yuan, both of which declined. During the same period, the national movie box office was 17.354 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 40.6%. The entire industry is spending the winter.

Among them, AI film and television drama revenue was 1.9323 million yuan, accounting for 0.42% of revenue.

Reducing losses shows that the old business is stopping the bleeding; setting the stock price shows that the new business is making bets. But that 0.42% reminds everyone: the story has just begun.

The daily limit is emotion, while financial reports are reality.

The box office on October 23 will be the verdict.

Three hurdles after the first year

The first hurdle is the box office.

AI is a selling point, but it may also be a thunderbolt. The audience can try technology once, but they will not pay for roughness twice. The popularity belongs to the official announcement, and the reputation belongs to the film.

What’s more, the market waits for no one: in the first half of 2026, the national movie box office dropped by 40% year-on-year. What theaters lack is not production tools, but reasons to bring audiences back to the theaters.

The second hurdle is type of work.

The positions of original painting, lighting, and special effects are being restructured; for new job types like AIGMS, industry standards and talent echelons have not yet been established. Old craftsmanship should not be let down, and new types of work should be defined.

Public data shows that in the first half of 2026, the number of AI short drama users has exceeded 600 million, and the market size has exceeded 22 billion yuan; 367,000 micro short dramas have been launched on various platforms, and AI short dramas account for more than 70%. The market is huge, and there are even more stories of losing money – one team launched 11 dramas in two months, and the total backstage revenue was only 9.6 yuan.

Productivity is not value, work is.

The third hurdle is going to sea.

This time, technology is ahead of international standards. The concept trailer has been unveiled at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. Sanxingdui’s cultural recognition is naturally an opening for overseas distribution. For the first time, a Chinese team is so close to “defining industry rules.”

There are three hurdles, one deeper than the other.

結語

It took Chinese movies two years to go from 1.2 million base images to one dragon mark.

It only takes 26 days from the dragon logo to the movie ticket in the hands of the audience.

The bronze mask of Sanxingdui has been sleeping underground for three thousand years, waiting for a shocking gaze.