AI Director Helms Futuristic Film 'The Sweet Idleness'

As of October 2025, Italian producer Andrea Iervolino is launching a new AI film label and has announced the production of "The Sweet Idleness," which he touts as "the first film directed by a virtual director." The film is "conceived to celebrate the poetic and dreamlike language of great European cinema" and is directed by an AI agent called "FellinAI."

The film's synopsis describes a future in which only 1% of humanity still works, with labor transformed into a symbolic ritual while the rest of the population lives in the freedom and leisure provided by machines. The story unfolds amid cathedral-factories, mechanical clowns, and surreal processions, with the "last workers" becoming the final masks of a humanity that resists the insolence of labor.

Iervolino has taken on the new role of "Human-on-the-Loop," guiding and ensuring the creative and production consistency of the AI process. The cast is provided by Actor+, an in-house agency that works with real people, whose faces, physicality, and personality are used to bring the digital actors and characters to life. These digital actors will continue to exist beyond the film, through social media, opinions, interactions, and personal content.