Riding the AI boom, ByteDance stages a strong comeback to the film industry.
“Why does Volcano Engine sponsor Pingyao International Film Festival?”
When the “Volcano Engine” LOGO is widely spread across the venue of this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival, many people may have similar questions in mind.
As the cloud service division under ByteDance, Volcano Engine has begun to frequently appear in top-tier film festivals. A few months ago, Volcano Engine held a special AI Imaging Summit at the Cannes Film Festival.
At the Pingyao Film Festival on September 27, Volcano Engine launched the Seedance Film and Television Cooperation Program, providing Token subsidies for professional global film and television projects (feature films, series, animation works, creative short films, etc.), with a maximum incentive of up to 1 million RMB per project.
Volcano Engine at Pingyao Film Festival
On October 23, *Sanxingdui: Past and Future* with Seedance participating in part of the scene production will be released in theaters. When AI short dramas are still the focus of industry discussion, ByteDance’s AI tools have already entered the production process of theatrical films.
From a broader perspective, ByteDance has already laid out its film industry layout as early as around 2020. Now, AI is bringing a brand new opportunity to deeply penetrate the entire film and television industry chain.
ByteDance, this traditional internet giant, seems to be continuing its penetration into the traditional film industry with the help of AI.
01 From Cannes to Pingyao, Volcano Engine Sets Its Sights on Film Festivals
In February 2026, ByteDance released Seedance 2.0, which shocked the industry and promoted the AI transformation process of short dramas. But this is just the beginning, and ByteDance’s ambition obviously goes far beyond that.
Three months later, Volcano Engine made its appearance at the Cannes Film Festival together with Seedance 2.0.
At the film festival, the AI film *Hell Grind* became the focus of the industry. It is a 95-minute feature film produced by Higgsfield, a famous US unicorn AI company, with a budget of less than 500,000 USD and a production cycle of 14 days. Almost all the videos and voices in it are generated by Seedance 2.0.
(Recommended reading: 15 people, 14 days, 500,000 USD to make a 95-minute AI film? Cannes is completely swept by AI this time | In-depth Observation)
If AI short dramas have gradually become a content production trend before, the emergence of Seedance 2.0 has further drawn attention to the possibility of AI participating in the production of long-form film and television works and even theatrical films.
Recently, Volcano Engine directly took over an afternoon of the industry forum at the Pingyao International Film Festival to discuss the relationship between AI and film. The directors attending the forum include Jia Zhangke, founder of Pingyao International Film Exhibition and president of China Film Association, Wang Hongwei, secretary general of China Film Directors Association, and renowned director Guan Hu.
Volcano Engine AIGC Themed Summit
From providing models to actively looking for film and television projects, the role of Volcano Engine is changing. A key figure in this process is Jia Zhangke.
Jia Zhangke’s connection with ByteDance also started with Seedance 2.0. During the 2026 Spring Festival, Jia Zhangke cooperated with Seedance 2.0 to complete the AI short film *Director Jia Dance*.
In this short film, Jia Zhangke completed a self-dialogue in the AI world. He stated on Weibo that both versions of Jia Zhangke were generated by AI, one retaining obvious AI characteristics, while the other is almost identical to his real-life self.
Interestingly, two years ago, Jia Zhangke also participated in the Keling AIGC Director Co-creation Program to produce the short film *Wheat Harvest*, and he has always been a renowned director at the cutting edge of technology.
The emergence of Seedance 2.0 further expands the space for AI film production, so it is not surprising that Jia Zhangke reached a co-creation agreement with it. For ByteDance, there are not many directors who have sufficient influence in the film industry and are willing to embrace AI.
In just one year, Jia Zhangke has shaken hands with ByteDance three times, from the Spring Festival AI short film *Director Jia Dance*, to the AI short film *Amateur* at the Cannes Film Festival, and then to the in-depth cooperation and exchange at the Pingyao Film Festival.
At the Cannes Film Festival, Jia Zhangke said:
It is very proud to see Chinese technology standing on the international stage.
At the Pingyao Film Festival, Jia Zhangke said:
The birth of any new technology is inevitably accompanied by its destructive side. We should gradually improve the industrial process in practice, gradually protect the “divinity” of human beings, and gradually form a production mode of close cooperation between AI and humans.
Jia Zhangke delivers a keynote speech at the AIGC Summit of Pingyao International Film Festival
At the AIGC Summit of Pingyao Film Festival, Volcano Engine announced the Seedance Film and Television Cooperation Program, with a maximum incentive of 1 million RMB per project.
Roundtable Dialogue at AIGC Themed Summit
The ByteDance products appearing at the Pingyao Film Festival are not limited to Volcano Engine and Seedance. Douyin participated in the “X Hours Later” AI Short Film Hackathon, with Volcano Engine providing computing power support, Jia Zhangke serving as the special guest, and all works presented on Douyin.
As a result, different businesses under ByteDance have begun to appear on the same content chain: Volcano Engine provides cloud and computing power support, Seedance provides video generation models, Jimeng provides AI creation tools for creators, there is also the Skylark Agent production platform, and Douyin has the capabilities of content dissemination and user reach.
02 Seven Years of Tangled Relations, ByteDance Still Does Not Give Up on Films
Beyond the well-known short videos and short dramas, ByteDance has actually coveted the film, television and variety industry for many years.
From 2018 to 2020, ByteDance purchased a large number of film and television copyrights for Xigua Video, its medium and long video platform, and produced self-made variety shows, trying to build its own moat for the medium and long video platform outside the short video track.
In those years, Xigua Video spent huge sums to buy the copyrights of film and television works such as *Liang Jian* and *The Grand Mansion Gate*, and produced self-made variety shows such as *Top Task* and *Uncle’s Inn*; at the same time, it poached creators including Wizard Finance with high signing fees, almost challenging iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku and Bilibili at the same time.
However, Xigua Video ended in failure, failing to help ByteDance replicate the success of Douyin in the long video field.
A former middle-level manager of ByteDance believes that choosing the long video ecosystem of film, television and variety shows for Xigua Video was a mistake from the very beginning. This is essentially a money-burning business, not a model that can turn positive through self-circulation. The rise of iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku was due to the low copyright cost at that time, and Xigua Video missed the best window period when it entered the market.
Every cloud has a silver lining. Although Xigua Video failed to replicate the success of Douyin, ByteDance gradually began to get involved in the film distribution link. During the 2020 Spring Festival, ByteDance spent 630 million RMB to purchase the online streaming rights of the film *Lost in Russia*.
At the same time, ByteDance signed an agreement with Huanxi Media to carry out in-depth cooperation. Huanxi Media has deep ties with a number of top Chinese-language directors including Ning Hao, Xu Zheng and Zhang Yimou, and has produced several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films such as *Crazy Alien* and *Dying to Survive*.
Specifically, ByteDance provides full support for project promotion and distribution for the films and television works produced by Huanxi Media, sets up an independent entrance for Huanxi Premiere APP to divert traffic, and further integrates re channel and jointly create the “Premiere” brand
From promotion and distribution and content authorization to jointly building the “Premiere” brand of theater channels, ByteDance has penetrated into the film industry chain so deeply for the first time.
In March 2020, ByteDance established Douyin Culture (Xiamen) Co., Ltd., whose business scope includes the production and distribution of films and television programs, performance brokerage business, etc.
From 2020 to 2023, Douyin Culture co-invested in 4, 16, 13 and 18 films respectively, and seized many hit films including *My People, My Homeland*, *The Wandering Earth 2* and *The Battle at Lake Changjin: Water Gate Bridge*.
However, Douyin mostly participated as a co-producer, with little say in the projects. During this period, Douyin also acquired the ticketing platform “Yingtuotuo” in 2022, which was later renamed “Douyin Movie Tickets”, completing the C-end channel layout.
Nevertheless, since 2024, ByteDance seems to have lost patience with the film business, and no longer continues the film investment and production business. The registered capital of Douyin Culture has shrunk from 10 million RMB to 2 million RMB later. In 2025, Douyin launched the film rating feature, trying to further consolidate its position as a film promotion platform.
03 In the AI Era, ByteDance Makes Films in a New Way
On October 23, the film *Sanxingdui: Past and Future* produced by Bona will be released in theaters, and ByteDance is also involved behind this film, which is called the first AI hyper-realistic theatrical film.
Bona once replied to investors about the cooperation with ByteDance that Seedance 2.0 is only used for partial scene optimization in the film.
Still from *Sanxingdui: Past and Future*
Previously, Bona Pictures, together with Douyin and Jimeng AI, launched the AIGC sci-fi short series *Sanxingdui: Future Revelation*, which achieved remarkable results with a total cross-platform dissemination volume of more than 160 million times. But when Bona goes a step further to bring AI films into cinemas, it still remains uncertain whether the audience will pay for it.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once said:
Most decisions should be made when you have about 70% of the ideal information. If you wait until you have 90% of the information, in most cases, you are probably moving too slowly.
For ByteDance, the maturity of AI video generation technology may provide a window to enter the film and television production link in advance.
In May, Volcano Engine participated in the Cannes Film Festival and brought 8 AI films; in September, Volcano Engine appeared at the Pingyao Film Festival with Seedance, and launched the Seedance Film and Television Cooperation Program, providing Token subsidies, promotion reand television projects, with a maximum incentive of up to 1 million RMB per project
Few people have noticed that on August 26, Jimeng AI, another product of ByteDance, announced the official launch of the film and television content label “Jimeng Film Studio”, which specifies that the film project should be no less than 90 minutes.
Different from Volcano Engine, which mainly provides cloud services and model capabilities for enterprises, Jimeng Film Studio has extended its business to project incubation and production management, showing ByteDance’s intention to further participate in film and television production.
The leading position of the Seedance model gives ByteDance the confidence to deeply participate in future film production through AI.
We noticed that Volcano Engine is currently recruiting positions such as film and television screenwriters and editors. The AI content planning
