The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), the market of the Busan International Film Festival, will present InnoAsia 2026, its program built around the intersection of film and emerging technology.

This year’s participants include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kling AI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba Group, alongside a range of other technology and content companies and startups. The program is built around a vision of cinema and technology developing side by side, with a scope that runs from brand-film partnerships to the fast-growing microdrama business.

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ACFM and global marketing agency Innocean will co-host Cinema by Brand 2026, a new competition with the Producers Guild of Korea handling selection and production oversight. The platform links brand clients with filmmakers around the world to turn advertising messages into standalone films with real narrative ambition, rather than conventional commercials. This year’s contest calls for 20-minute short films built around Hanwha Group’s “Space Solar Power.” First-round picks arrive in early September, followed by final pitching later that month, with winners named during ACFM. Selected teams get production funding and will see their films shown to audiences in Korea and abroad. A market session will dig into what branded content means for the business and how the initiative came together, with participation expected from Hanwha, Innocean and the selected directors.

Beyond brands and filmmakers, InnoAsia is deepening ties with technology firms and international markets. This year’s AI-driven tech participants include AWS, Google DeepMind, BytePlus, Alibaba Cloud, Netflix’s VFX studio Eyeline Studios, MegazoneCloud, OPIM Digital, the Korean Film Archive’s VFX trading platform i.AM, Kling AI and Inshorts.

On the content-production side, France’s Atlas V joins Korea’s Mateo AI Studio, MBC C&I, Climax Studio, For Entertainment, K-Dragon and MooAm, while microdrama platforms Mango TV, FlickReels and Vigloo round out the roster. Kling AI will co-host two sessions with ACFM, New Cinematic Possibilities: Reimagining Filmmaking with Kling AI and a networking reception tied to production needs across Asia. AWS and MegazoneCloud will launch new AWS Awards linked to startup pitching, with winners chosen through a proof-of-concept process and awarded AWS cloud vouchers. On the international side, EFM-linked startup Lux AI, which builds intelligent lighting tools for virtual production, will travel to Busan along with Tanja Meissner, director of Berlinale Pro and EFM. Through a partnership with TAICCA School under the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, VFX-efficiency startup imCore will also take part.

Seven Korean startups were chosen through an open call run with the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and AWS, together spanning the full content pipeline. On the development and production side, Lumicraft’s AI casting tool Castlink pairs actor discovery with contracting and settlement, while Reproduction’s Pre-Flow handles screenplay analysis and production data sharing. For localization, Voithru’s Totus offers AI dubbing across 29 languages, and XL8 brings both MediaCAT and EventCAT for video localization and real-time interpretation. On the exhibition side, Digion Cinema will show off an online cinema platform and AR smart glasses built for film viewing. MyStarChain will present its blockchain voting platform MyStarPick, and HiStranger will introduce Insight Flow, a tool that reads biosignals to gauge audience emotional response.

InnoAsia 2026 will run several programs across three tracks: technology proof-of-concept and investment, creators and production, and industry and policy. The InnoAsia Startup Demo Jam sits at the center of the first track, with nine companies, drawn from the open call and international partner recommendations, pitching AI, virtual production and digital-asset technologies to investors and buyers. The InnoAsia WIP Showcase will preview AI-based features, animation, series and interactive projects from directors including Pierre Zandrowicz, Mark Wachholz and Kang Yunsung, paired with a colloquium on AI production pipelines.

A Cinematic AI conference will spotlight Google DeepMind’s AI animation work and an AI film from director Darren Aronofsky, both previously featured at Cannes Next, and will examine AI filmmaking ecosystems with input from Alibaba Cloud and Kling AI. AI Creators Camp offers hands-on workshops led by VFX supervisors from major studios and creators who have won at AI film festivals. On the policy side, a panel titled Microdrama – Data, AI, Formats and Audiences: China and Beyond brings together executives from Mango TV, FlickReels and Vigloo to discuss the $18 billion shortdrama market, while Next Foundation gathers voices from technology, policy and academia, including the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, to weigh questions around independent AI foundation models, AI assets, and IP and copyright in an era of AI transformation.

InnoAsia 2026 will run Oct. 10-13, at Exhibition Center 2, BEXCO in Busan, alongside the 31st Busan International Film Festival, which runs Oct. 6-15, and the 21st Asian Contents & Film Market, held Oct. 10-13.

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