This year’s Cannes Next, taking place during the Marché du Film (14-21 May), event saw a jam-packed audience gathering to hear a conversation between two storytellers from very different creative worlds. Hideo Kojima, the iconic video game auteur behind the Metal Gear Solid series and Death Stranding, joined acclaimed German filmmaker Fatih Akin, whose movie Amrum [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] is screening in the Cannes Première line-up, to discuss how technology shapes their storytelling. Moderated by Konbini’s Arthur Cios, the panel, entitled “Technological Constraints & Freedoms – How Does Technology Influence Storytelling?”, explored not only tools like AI and motion capture, but also fundamental narrative structures in cinema and gaming.

Despite their different mediums, the two creators have been in conversation for some time. Kojima praised Akin’s In the Fade [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fatih Akin
scheda film], which stars Diane Kruger, who’s partner to Norman Reedus who collaborates regularly with Kojima, who first put the couple in touch. Their admiration is mutual. “When I see Hideo’s work, it's full of moments I’ve never seen before. That’s what we’re all looking for,” Akin enthused. Kojima, for his part, has cast Akin in his upcoming game, Death Stranding 2, as a character called Dollman. “We were always talking about creation. He looked like he wanted to be in the game, so I asked him. He said yes. I came up with the character in a week,” Kojima explained. Dollman is conceived as an emotional counterpart to the protagonist. “He’s someone who lost something. It’s the same with Fatih’s films, it’s about connection.”

On the subject of this collaboration, Akin added, “We all come to Cannes to win the Palme d’Or. That’s the goal. But honestly? Being a character in Hideo’s game is better than a Palme d’Or.” Responding to a question about why filmmakers are drawn to Kojima’s process, Akin offered a metaphor: “We’re visual explorers. It’s like what Keith Richards said, there’s one secret chord on every guitar. Hideo knows where the secret chord is.”

Cios turned the conversation toward technology’s role in storytelling today. Kojima explained the main difficulty with narrative design in games: “It’s interactive. You can’t decide on the timeline, the player decides. Everyone says I’m a storyteller, but I don’t think I’m successful yet. If you give people total freedom, players might never make it to the scene you planned.” To illustrate his point, Kojima likens scenes to the theatre stage. “You can give the player freedom to sit anywhere, but what if they never sit? That’s why we use cut scenes. But I want to go further. I want younger people to become creators and to find new ways of telling interactive stories. We’re still at the beginning of all this.”

Despite being rooted in live-action filmmaking, Akin acknowledged his own use of AI. “I already work with artificial intelligence, not to write the script, but for grammar, how to say something in one line, that kind of thing. It’s a tool. Of course, I can see the dark clouds, but I also see opportunities.” He also admitted the influence of games on his new film, Amrum. “There’s a 12-year-old boy trying to get three things: white bread, butter, and honey. They don’t have those on the island in 1945. It’s like levels, each thing is a quest. It was inspired by games.”

Kojima broke down the process of creating digital characters. “First, we scan the actor. It takes about nine months to deliver. Then we do performance capture, facial capture, ADR. It’s not just the face, it’s the voice, the movement, the wrinkles, the skin texture. You can’t do that by hand anymore.” The process, he notes, increasingly involves AI for things like cloth simulation and muscle tracking. “But we still need the actors. The character isn’t real without them.” Asked if he’d consider using such techniques, Akin was unequivocal. “Absolutely. If it helps tell the story, I’ll use it. I’m not a dogmatic filmmaker. I want to explore. There are no limits.” Kojima recalled visiting the set of Amrum. “It was beautiful. No technology needed. It was about capturing a moment in that season, in that location. That’s something film does very well.”

Reflecting on the use of technology in broader terms, Kojima offered an analogy: “AI is like when cars were invented. At first people were scared. Now everyone drives. Creators shouldn’t fear AI, they should use it to be more efficient, more creative.”

As the panel wrapped, Cios asked both creators what they valued most in storytelling today. For Kojima, it was freedom, with structure. For Akin, it was the chance to keep discovering new modes of expression. “Each film is different from the last. That’s how I learn,” he said. “And if that means using new technology, so be it.”