Democratizing Cinema:

Technology, Creators and Expanding Storytelling Horizons

“As the ways in which moving images are created continue to evolve, emerging technologies are redefining the boundaries of film production, distribution and cinematic expression. Creators are gaining unprecedented opportunities to experiment with new narrative forms, reach wider audiences and reimagine how stories are conceived, produced and experienced.

This public forum is presented as part of the Animal · Nature · Future Film Festival (ANFFF) – Creator Incubator, the flagship non-profit programme of International Nature Bond CIC. It provides a platform for dialogue between established filmmaking practices and emerging technologies, exploring how innovation is reshaping the future of cinema and moving-image culture. By connecting filmmakers, producers, technologists and creative practitioners from diverse cultural backgrounds, ANFFF fosters international collaboration, knowledge exchange and new creative opportunities.”

Date and Time: 5th September 2026 ｜ 11:30AM - 13:30PM

Event Venue: Biennale Match Point Arena, Lungomare Guglielmo Marconi

Ticket Type: Free Entry - Pass holders and public (First Come First Serve)
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Meet the Speakers

  • Eileen Tasca

    Managing Director, Alien Films & Task Films

    Eileen Tasca is the managing director of Alien Films and Task Films, and a long-standing creative partner of legendary Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski. She served as the Italian producer of EO (2022), winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature Film in 2023. The acclaimed parable follows the journey of a humble donkey through the absurdities and harsh realities of the modern world, and stands as one of the most celebrated European art films of recent years.

    Her return to Venice carries special resonance: she was executive producer of Skolimowski's 11 Minutes, which had its world premiere at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, went on to win the top prize at the Lisbon Film Festival, and was selected as Poland's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards. Her collaboration with Skolimowski also includes co-financing Essential Killing (2010), honoured at the Venice Film Festival.

  • Kiddy Lee

    Creative Director

    Kiddy Lee is a content creator with 3M+ followers and a graduate in documentary filmmaking from the University of Hong Kong. His film Kitty Gun received the Special Jury Recommendation Award at the Beijing International Film Festival.

    Kiddy operates his film studio in Hong Kong and has secured more than 50 commercial partnerships with leading companies including ByteDance, Tencent, and Huawei.

    In 2025, he was awarded a full scholarship to study AI‑driven film production at HFF Munich. He is currently collaborating with animal rescue shelters, leveraging AI‑generated imagery to explore new narrative possibilities for animal conservation.

  • Shixin Tao

    Director, Hangzhou Ostar Media Co.,Ltd

    Shixin Tao is the director of The Pigeon Ring, an immersive work selected for the Official Competition of Venice Immersive at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. He is a director and imaging technology creator whose practice focuses on emerging imaging technologies and immersive storytelling. He specializes in identifying the distinctive qualities of different imaging technologies and translating them into narrative tools that serve storytelling and immersive experiences.

    He graduated from the Department of Film and Television Technology at the Beijing Film Academy and currently works as a writer-director at MediaStorm, where he develops and creates digital media programs on filmmaking, imaging technologies, and emerging media, with a long-standing focus on making imaging technology accessible to a broader public. He contributed to the HDR imaging pipeline of the film Never Say Never. In 2023, he founded the podcast Immersive101, which explores how imaging technologies shape immersive experiences.

    In recent years, his practice has expanded into 4D imaging and spatial computing. He maintains a long-term collaboration with 4DV.ai, continuously exploring the applications of 4D Gaussian Splatting across traditional filmmaking and immersive media.

  • Yuqi Zhang

    Independent Director

    Zhang Yuqi is the director of The Pigeon Ring, an immersive work selected for the Official Competition of Venice Immersive at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. Combining family memory with emerging spatial imaging technologies, The Pigeon Ring uses 4D Gaussian Splatting to reconstruct live-action performances and real family spaces, allowing experiencers to truly “enter” and inhabit the memories of a Chinese family while further exploring the possibilities of live-action imagery in 6DoF immersive storytelling.

    She is a young independent director with a BA in Cinematography and Production from the Communication University of China and an MArch in Cinematic and Videogame Architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. The Pigeon Ring is her first directorial work after graduation and marks an important starting point in her practice as an independent director working with immersive media.

    Her practice explores how immersive media can reshape the relationship between experiencers and stories, while exploring the creative possibilities offered by 4D Gaussian Splatting and other emerging technologies. Rather than being confined to a fixed viewpoint, experiencers are free to explore, interact, and gradually discover the story for themselves.

  • Kean Cao

    CEO, MIMAOKU; Founder, ANFFF

    Kean Cao is a producer, international cultural event curator and PR specialist. She serves as President of MIMAOKU Culture & Media Co., Ltd. (Shanghai & UK), Chair of International Nature Bond CIC (INB CIC), Artistic Director of ANF (Animal · Nature · Future) and Founder of the ANFFF Film Festival. She is also the Asia PR Representative for the Cannes Palm Dog Award and for WeShort, the short film distribution platform. With extensive experience in international co-production film development, global festival operations and cross-cultural exchange, she will serve as moderator of this forum, guiding the panel through an in-depth conversation on emerging technologies and the future of cinema.

  • The forum features internationally acclaimed producer Eileen Tasca — Italian producer of EO, winner of the Cannes Jury Prize and a 2023 Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature Film — in dialogue with a new generation of artists and directors: Shixin Tao and Yuqi Zhang, whose 4D Gaussian work The Pigeon Ring, produced by Media Storm, has been selected for the Immersive Island of this year's Venice International Film Festival; and Kiddy Lee, chief director of A Cat Named T-Rex, ANFFF's non-profit short film produced in collaboration with Qiuqiu Manor, a sanctuary that has rescued over 3,000 cats. Drawing on their diverse practices, the four guests will explore how emerging image-making technologies are reshaping the entire cinematic value chain — from creation to audience engagement and distribution.

    As technology continues to democratise access to filmmaking, what new opportunities emerge for independent creators and the global film industry? And as the possibilities of moving images continue to expand, how can innovation amplify—rather than replace—the uniquely human qualities of emotion, imagination and storytelling that define cinema?

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