Artificial Intelligence is no longer a science fiction scenario: it is here and it is changing the world around us. The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, always at the forefront of new forms of expression, asks in this edition how it affects our daily lives, what place it occupies in art and in cinema in particular, to find out the limits of human creativity in the face of the algorithm. The homage to artificial intelligence, from 6 to 16 March, invites us on a fascinating journey that includes a selection of documentaries, an impressive visual installation, a master class, a special edition in two languages, as well as the Festival magazine First Short, co-created this year with the help of AI as a form of experimentation. A cinematic exploration of the new reality, situated on the threshold between the artificial and the digital.
The Movies
As part of the tribute, films exploring different aspects of Artificial Intelligence will be screened. Among them, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, directed by Bartek Dziadosz and Tilda Swinton, an intriguing journey into the mechanisms of learning, how it has come to be influenced by technology and what values we transmit through games, crafts, stories and film.
Tonje Hessen Schei‘s iHuman (2019) is a documentary with a political thriller feel that raises questions about artificial intelligence, power and social control, touching on the less visible aspects of this technology, showing how it transforms our lives, society and the future. Through the testimony of pioneers in the field, the documentary analyses the evolution and impact of AI, asking a disturbing question: will it be used as a tool for progress and well-being, or will it lead to a dystopian society under unprecedented totalitarian control?
In About A Hero (2024), by Piotr Winiewicz, after the death of a local factory worker in mysterious circumstances, Werner Herzog travels to Getunkirchenburg to investigate. However, Herzog is not the one who seems, nor the film is what we expect … About a Hero is an adaptation of a script written by an AI trained in Herzog’s work. The fiction narrative that produced, ironically self -reflective, is intertwined with a series of interviews with artists, philosophers and scientists who reflect on the notion of originality, authenticity, immortality and the soul in the AI era.
The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze (Bartek Dziadosz, Tilda Swinton, 2024).
In Flash Wars: Autonomous Weapons, A.I. and The Future of Warfare (2024), by Daniel Andrew Wunderrer, we see how the AI controls kamikazes and robot dogs that patrol the streets of New York. Science fiction has come true. The specialists discuss the ways in which AI has radically altered the nature of contemporary military conflicts, while giving the alarm signal about possible dangers. Exploring the deep philosophical, legal, ethical and machine materials that have the ability to sow death, the documentary shows opinions of experts in robotics, military, hackers and mechanics, providing a new perspective in this type of world conflicts.
In the Belly of AI (2024), by Henri Poulain, investigates how artificial intelligence feeds our dreams and nightmares. But while the technological giants promise the advent of a new humanity, between the reasons AI remains completely hidden. While the data centers concrete landscapes and dry rivers, millions of workers around the world prepare the billions of data that will feed the voracious algorithms of Big Tech, at the expense of their mental and emotional health.
The Biography of Software, by George Drivas (2024), wonders what happens when a man who has lost all memory tries to remember his life with the help of a computer. The film is a multimedia project conceived and carried out by the visual artist George Drivas, in collaboration with the musical composer Melina Paxinos, in an audiovisual dialogue with intelligent software, used to digitally recover audiovisual data from the past and reactivate the memory of a person in search of their lost identity.
Within the framework of the tribute, the festival is associated with OpenDocs, a worldwide pioneer program that offers support, financing, AI tools and consulting services to artists from around the world. It is an initiative launched by Anna Giralt Gris and Jorge Caballero that aims to allow artists from all over the world to tools to the storytelling of stories. Five of the films selected within the framework of Open Docs will be exhibited at the 27th International Documentary Festival of Thessaloniki:
In the disturbing 512×512 (2023), by Arthur Chopin, an Internet user tries to reconstruct, through the use of AI, the face of Francine Descartes, the young daughter of the French philosopher René Descartes, based on the myth that the legendary philosopher had once manufactured a robot with her daughter’s face after her death. In Kinktimacy (2025), by Quang Nong, we are iniciated in the Japanese Sadomasochist practice of the Shibari, following an immigrant of Cambodia who lives in Australia.
About a Hero (Piotr Winiewicz, 2024).
After an accident in Kosovo, a woman wakes up speaking Vietnamese fluently, while an American soldier in Vietnam forgets her English after a craniocerebral trauma. Through an ingenious narrative thread, full of images produced by Runaway AI, the disturbing Saigon, Kosovo (2025), of Tin Dirdamal, displays a love story between two people aimed at never knowing each other. The Rock Speaks (2025), by François Knoetze and Emily Louise Wilson, follows a cobalt rock on a transcontinental trip that starts from the Congo and ends in the globalized production chain. A hybrid documentary that uses generative artificial intelligence to visualize the territories where this rare earth mineral is extracted.
How do you learn a machine to interpret our world? Their Eyes (2025), by Nicolas Gourault, introduces us to people who process and categorize countless images of street traffic in the United States, in order to train cars of the future. At the same time, these people express their fear of being fired by the same software they have been training.
In addition, as part of the tribute a series of experimental short films on AI will be screened. Among them: Ethereal Rhythms, Everything Rhymes (2025), by Brecht Vanhoutte; Duck (2024), by Rachel Maclean; Time Metallurgist (2024), by Tomáš Rampula; and the experimental Echoes of Grief (2023), of Verena Repa.
Lauren Lee McCarthy.
Audiovisual Installation and Masterclass
Cosmote, member of the Tekelom Group, and sponsor of the festival, proposes a unique experience that intertwines art and technology of AI. Lauren: Anyone Home? From the artist and professor of the UCLA Lauren Lee McCarthy will be exhibited at the Momus-Experimental Center for the Arts.
Lauren: Anyone Home? It is an artistic installation in which the artist acts as a human version of Alexa, supervising and controlling the home of visitors. The experience begins with the installation of smart devices, creating a completely connected home. Unlike conventional technologies, this work integrates human perception and intuition, exploring the relationship between privacy, privacy, comfort and autonomy. The installation invites you to reflect on the control of technology in personal spaces and the potential of AI to generate a significant dialogue.
The work received the Human Ai Art Award, awarded by Telekom and the Museum of Art of Bonn, which recognizes projects that fuse artificial art and intelligence to redefine creativity and technology. McCarthy adopts a critical approach to AI, rethinking coexistence between humanity, nature and technology.
Likewise, within the framework of the tribute, on Sunday, March 9, at 12 noon, at the Pavlos Zannas Theater, the Masterclass AI and Art Experience Powered by Telekom will be held, which will provide the public with the opportunity to take a look at the exciting relationship between AI and art. Actress Stefania Goulioti, the visual artist and director George Drivas, the founder and president of the Institute of Philosophy and Technology Giannis Stamatelos, the composer Kostis Maravayas, the artist and professor of the UCLA Lauren Lee McCarthy will discuss the possibilities and challenges that implies the use of artificial intelligence in art, opening an art Creation. Its objective is to explore the limits of artistic creation.
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