Cannes, France, May 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A shift is underway in the global film industry as creators across the globe embrace Kling AI to produce cinematic-level visuals and push the boundaries of storytelling.
At the Marche Du Film in Cannes, three films leveraging Kling AI are showcased at a panel themed "From Creative Possibility to Production Reality: Kling AI in Cinematic Workflows", including Raphael, South Korea's first full-length feature generated entirely by AI, House of David, biblical epics from the Wonder Project and a groundbreaking Chinese animation epic Born of the Tide.
Native 4K Generation for Cinematic-Level Output
"For House of David, we did it for a third of what the studios told us we needed," said Jon Erwin, the writer and producer of House of David, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Wonder Project.
For House of David, Kling AI has served as its core foundation model and benchmark tool. Across both season one and two, Kling AI has generated the vast majority of its production shots, leading the share of its AI workflows for the show. While Season One of House of David incorporated 72 shots invovling the use of AI, its second season used more than four times as many AI shots compared to the first season.
Building on that success, the team recently launched the biblical epic "The Old Stories: Moses" featuring Oscar Award winning Ben Kingsley in the title role and utilizes Kling AI's 4K capabilities at the forefront of its creative process. The series pioneers a hybrid approach of filmmaking that combines live-action with AI-enhanced workflows in virtual production.
"Native 4K was something that we've been asking for for a long time, native to the foundation model, and Kling is the first to deliver that, and then the results are staggering, they're beautiful," said Jon.
"I am very excited about the democratization of scope and scale to filmmakers everywhere. I think our industry will be better for it, and I think that there will be an explosion of creativity and originality, as these tools are induced and adopted," he added.
Emotional Expressiveness for Feature Film
Raphael, South Korea's first full-length feature created entirely using generative AI, is a large-scale production being developed by Mateo AI Studio. Currently in production with the goal of a theatrical release in 2026, this project is leveraging Kling AI's powerful video model throughout the production process to maximize distinctive visual effects and deliver a differentiated cinematic experience.
"Raphael started using Kling 1.0 model from 2024 and from then on, we realized that Kling is exceptional in its emotional expression. Also because films like Raphael really aim for theatrical screening, features of Kling AI, such as the 4K features, are absolutely necessary," said Eekjun Yang, Co-Founder and Director of Mateo AI Studio, and Director at MBC C&I AI Content Lab.
With Kling AI, one of the impressive features was the fact that directors can describe the situation for them as a prompt, and then the model would make an output with the emotional expression that will be suitable, he added.
A major misconception in the filmmaking industry is that filmmakers use generative AI solely to slash budgets and speed up production. In reality, for a new wave of directors, AI is not a cost-cutting shortcut—it is the only gateway to making their films a reality.
"A director like myself, who was not famous yet, or has never had experience making feature films, it was very difficult for me to obtain any investment in the first place. Therefore, AI tool used was in fact not a choice but a necessity for myself," he noted.
Realism and Visual Quality for Theatrical Screens
Born of the Tide, the first AI-generated cinematic epic exploring China's Tanka community, often referred to as "sea nomads" for their long-standing floating way of life, leverages Kling AI's 4K capabilities to present its sweeping, high-stakes spectacles, such as massive dragon boat races, explosive fish market bombings, and sprawling mountain battles.
"Kling AI faithfully preserves the director's intended color tones without losing stylistic consistency during the video generation process. The platform also delivers rare realism in rendering waves, torrential rain, and the intricate, glistening reflections of firelight across wet wooden ship planks—textures that stand out as unmatched among AI models," said Wei Li, director of Born of the Tide and Executive Director for Big Fish & Begonia. His film Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification, an Annecy 2021 official selection, has hit over 228 million dollars in box office, one of China's biggest animated box office smashes in 2020.
Previously, AI filmmakers were limited by the models' capabilities in generating storyboards- wide shots would blur and close-ups would lose facial details. Kling AI's Native 4K shatters these creative limitations, giving directors the confidence to shoot sweeping, high-stakes spectacles, with the resolution required for massive theatrical screens, he added.
Also at the panel, Kling AI announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide partnership with UK production company Evolutionary Films on the upcoming animated feature MINIBOTS.
Under the deal, Kling becomes the exclusive global "Technological Brand Partner" on the feature, providing production support, platform access and a dedicated Creative Partnership Programme supporting MINIBOTS' internationally recognised AI artist team.
The production has adopted a strict "performance-first" AI charter under which all performances remain entirely human-created and actor-owned and the project is already attracting significant interest from A-list voice talent.
Kling AI is one of the world's leading AI creative platforms, focused on next-generation tools for visual storytelling, cinematic workflows and creative production innovation. Since its launch, It has empowered over 60 million creators worldwide.
Jack Huang JackHuang@klingai.com
