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Bucheon International Film Festival (Bifan) has launched its first competition dedicated to AI filmmaking and revealed 15 titles from the US, Asia and Europe that will compete.

The selected films, chosen from 114 submissions, will screen as part of a dedicated section at the upcoming festival, which runs June 7-14 in Bucheon City, South Korea.

They include Hansl Von Kwon’s One More Pumpkin, which won the grand prize and audience award at the inaugural AI Film Festival in Dubai in February; Another by US-based filmmaker Dave Clark; and Kiss/Crash by UK-based artist Adam Cole, which won an audience award at SXSW.

Released a full three years after the original installment, burgeoning J-sploitation director Hiroki Yamaguchi returns with the next installments in the franchise with these back-to-back filmed efforts. Initially released separately as ‘Bloody Chainsaw Girl 2: Giko Awakens’ and ‘Bloody Chainsaw Girl Returns: Revenge of Nero,’ the two efforts have been edited together into one singular feature for their screening at Japan Film Fest Hamburg.

Bloody Chainsaw Girl 2 & 3 screened at Japan Filmfest Hamburg:

After barely surviving an assassination attempt, chainsaw-wielding schoolgirl Giko Nokomura (Nana Asakawa) learns that she has attracted the attention of rival Nero Aoi (Ano), who has been sending killer cyborgs after her. When her friend Asako Senzaki (Nanami Hidaka) becomes involved in the struggle to stop Nero’s rampage, they end up back at their old school to learn more about her and meet up with the last of her cyborgs, Drie (Momoko Kaechi) who doesn’t...

Hiroki Yamaguchi's Gusha no Bindume is as Japanese as a movie can be. Utterly drenched in cyberpunk and manga influences, the film is a sprawling testament of what a young film maker can accomplish with a shoestring budget as long as he has the talent and vision to make something unique. It's a shame we haven't heard from Yamaguchi since, but at least he left us with a very special legacy indeed. If the name Gusha no Bindume doesn't ring a bell it might be because you know the film under a different title. As it dates back to a time when publishing companies were still very eager to bring Japanese films to the West (or at least, eager enough to pick up off-center titles...

I admit, I have a soft spot for films from first-time directors. That first chance to make something universal and lasting is often met with considerable amounts of enthusiasm and spirit. And more importantly, creativity. On the other hand these films often lack bursts of balance and continuity, though this hardly bothers me at all.

From time to time these freshmen attempts outgrow their initial potential and turn out to be simple gems of cinema. These cases are rather rare, but they do pop up from time to time. For most directors its the start of a successful career towards more commercial successes.

But for a select few, it's their only moment of fame. Some directors disappear as quickly as the arrived, leaving only one masterpiece and a void of unfulfilled potential. For this ToM I looked for directors who should be forced to make their sophomore feature film as quickly a possible.