"Sanxingdui: Future Memories" reaches theaters on Oct 23 after the studio's 100 minute production passed national censors. The film, produced by Bona, is the first of its kind to gain approval from Chinese film regulators and features a cast consisting entirely of original digital characters with no human actors or digital copies of real people.

The project evolved from a 12 episode AI short series launched on Douyin in summer 2024 using ByteDance's Jimeng video tool. To secure a theatrical release license in April, the film was classified as an animated movie because Chinese authorities have not yet established a regulatory category for AI-generated features, Caixin reported.