3 Minutes
From Marrakech jury chair to animation director
Bong Joon-ho — the Oscar-winning director of Parasite — has quietly taken on a bold new challenge: directing an untitled animated feature slated for 2027. While serving as jury president at the Marrakech International Film Festival, he revealed that mornings are now for animation production. Rising before dawn in his hotel, Bong balances festival duties with the demanding, meticulous world of animation, a process he described as 'wild and grueling.'
What we know about the project
Although he remains mostly tight-lipped, Bong confirmed one intriguing creative seed: the film centers on an unusual and playful relationship between humans and tiny, mysterious creatures living in the ocean depths. That premise evokes comparisons across film history — from the whimsical marine imaginings of Finding Nemo to Guillermo del Toro’s aquatic romance in The Shape of Water — but Bong’s sensibility, proven in The Host, Snowpiercer and Parasite, promises something stranger and darker, yet emotionally sharp.
Behind the scenes: the heavy lift of animation
Animation is a different beast from live-action filmmaking. It demands long lead times, frame-by-frame decision-making, and intense collaboration between writers, designers, animators and sound teams. Bong’s confession that he even worked from his hotel room underscores how hands-on and exacting the production is. For fans, it’s a reminder that even acclaimed directors must learn new workflows and manage studio expectations when switching mediums.
Context: a director reinventing himself amid industry change
Bong’s move into animation arrives at a moment when filmmakers are navigating rapid technological shifts. On the Marrakech jury, he sat alongside a diverse international panel including Celine Song, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jenna Ortega, Karim Aïnouz, Hakim Belabbas, Julia Ducournau and Peyman Maadi. When asked whether emerging directors face greater hurdles today, Bong singled out artificial intelligence as a potential major disruption. He argued that crises have always driven cinema’s inventiveness; AI might heighten the stakes, but could also catalyze new aesthetics and energy.
This ambivalence — part concern, part excitement — echoes broader industry debates: will AI streamline visual effects and preproduction or erode creative labor and authorship? Bong even joked, half-serious, about forming a squad to 'destroy AI,' a quip that captures both frustration and wry humor.
For cinephiles, Bong’s animation represents a compelling crossroad: a celebrated live-action auteur diving into animation, an oceanic fable on the horizon, and a filmmaker engaging publicly with cinema’s technological future. Expect the project to blend creature design, social observation, and the moral complexity that defines Bong’s best work.
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