Aesthetic Turn and Media Reflection of AI-driven Experimental Films in the Generative Context

Abstract

In 2025, the 7th Hainan Island International Film Festival established the AI Film Season for the first time and received 2,852 works from 56 countries and regions around the world; the 3rd Runway AI Film Festival also selected 10 films from about 6,000 submitted short films. Together, these two events show that AI-generated images have been included in the film festival's screening list and are now a trend that demands attention from creators. This paper examines AI experimental films and studies changes in their creative paradigm, subject form, and reception mode. The study shows that changes in "reproduction/performance" to "generation/emergence", a shift from "authorship" to "human-machine collaboration", and a transition from "narrative dominance" to "sensory immersion" are all problems that the film medium faces in the era of algorithms. AI creation has the potential to expand the expressive space of images, but it also poses problems for the existing critical system due to the algorithmic black box and de-subjectification. Survey data released by Luminate in April 2026 also show that AI-generated film and television content interest among American consumers has been declining steadily; from May to November 2025, it continued to drop. Given the discrepancy between the pace of technological iteration and the acceptance of aesthetics, film theory urgently requires a more adaptable "post-human" analytical system.