AI-generated feature A Woman Asleep enters FilmFest Cottbus competition
Vikki Bardot’s AI-generated feature A Woman Asleep has been selected for the main competition at Germany’s FilmFestival Cottbus.
An AI-generated feature film is heading into competition at Germany’s FilmFestival Cottbus, placing artificial intelligence at the centre of another conversation about the future of filmmaking.
A Woman Asleep, created by artist and filmmaker Vikki Bardot, has been selected for the festival’s main competition. Screen Daily reported the selection on 16 October, ahead of the festival, which is scheduled to take place from 3 to 8 November.
The film follows a young woman who feels trapped in a cycle of late-night scrolling and isolation. Although she longs to leave her bed, see friends and family, and go to the cinema, she remains glued to her phone, awake until the early hours. Loosely inspired by Georges Perec’s novel A Man Asleep, director Vikki Bardot places the female experience at the centre of a story about a generation that is constantly connected online but increasingly disconnected from real life.
The film is entirely AI-generated, with Bardot narrating in her own voice cloned using artificial intelligence, turning the loneliness of modern life into striking AI imagery.
The film is reported to contain approximately 50,000 AI-generated shots and brings a production made using generative technology into a competitive festival setting alongside other contemporary cinema.
AI-generated films have prompted debate across the screen industries about authorship, originality, working conditions and the role of human artists. Some filmmakers see the technology as a way to experiment with images and storytelling that would otherwise be difficult or expensive to produce. Others have raised concerns about the training material used by AI systems and the effect of automation on creative jobs.
The selection of A Woman Asleep offers a concrete example of how AI-made work is entering established film spaces, where audiences and industry professionals can consider the result as a film rather than simply as a demonstration of technology.
Its place in the main competition does not, by itself, settle wider questions about AI’s role in cinema. It does, however, give the work a platform within an international festival programme and an opportunity to be considered in the context of contemporary filmmaking.
