Edmond Yang Masterclass: The Hand in the Machine

Can AI serve hand-crafted, cross-cultural, independent storytelling, with originality, detail and the director's hand at the core? Edmond Yang says it can, with his award-winning filmmaking work to testify.
The Oslo-born, Norwegian-Chinese designer spent 25 years in branding, broadcast graphics and motion design before turning to film, with a client list that includes Nike, Microsoft, IBM, SAS, Telenor, Helly Hansen and Universal Music. He was AI lead on One Last Wish, written by Erlend Loe and made in 48 hours at Cinema Synthetica Norway, which took Gold for best narrative at Project Odyssey, billed as the world's largest AI film competition. Snikmord, again with Yang as AI lead, repeated the Gullhaien win in 2026. His stop-motion-styled, detail-heavy shorts have passed 350 million views.
Yang is a creative partner to Runway, Luma AI, Pika and Magnific, co-founded the Oslo production and training agency AIAIAI, directs at the motion design studio NERVELAB across Shanghai, Hong Kong and Norway, and teaches at various film schools and institutions.
Through Cinema Synthetica, the 48-hour format that puts working filmmakers and the newest tools on the same script, he has seen first-hand what the technology does to a director's voice, and what it does not.
This masterclass is aimed at the producers, directors, animators and heads of development. In the conversation, Yang will walk through his principles, tools and working pipelines for commercial and screening-grade animation and hybrid live-action work and how a filmmaker's style stays recognisably their own. Concrete workflows rather than hype, and a plain view on keeping slop out of the frame.
Moderated by Sten Saluveer, Head of Studies, Mastering AI for European Film Professionals (MAIEFP).