Nono's Sakura

Winner — Best Music Video, Thilsri International Film Festival 2026 (India)

Finalist — Seoul International AI Film Festival 2026 (SIAFF), (South Korea)

Finalist – MEI International Film Festival 2026 (India)

Semi-Finalist — Sweden Film Awards 2026 (Sweden)

Semi-Finalist — Luleå International Film Festival 2026 (Sweden)

Official Selection — Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival 2026 (Japan)

Official Selection — Stockholm City Film Festival 2026 (Sweden)

Honorable Mention — Indo Dubai International Film Festival 2026 (UAE)

Under a sky of falling cherry blossoms, a girl gathers her quiet resolve and begins to move forward.

Set to a gentle reinterpretation of a classic song, the film transforms themes of conflict into something intimate and personal — a moment of stillness before motion, of hesitation turning into will.

There are no words, only breath, light, and the rhythm of footsteps.

At the end, a single message remains:

Go.

  • Pai Chen
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    Animation, Music, Drama, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 36 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 22, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    100 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Taiwan
  • Country of Filming:
    Taiwan
  • Language:
    Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    AI Generated / Digital Animation
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Mei International Film Festival

    India
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Pai Chen

Pai Chen is an independent filmmaker and AI-assisted creator based in Taiwan, and the founder of Studio Nono.

His work explores the intersection of music, emotion, and emerging creative technologies, often blending original vocal performance with AI-driven visual storytelling. Rather than focusing on technical spectacle, he approaches filmmaking as a personal and expressive act — treating each project as a singular moment of encounter between creator, character, and audience.

Through projects such as “Nono’s Sakura,” he seeks to capture quiet emotional states — hesitation, resolve, and the fragile beauty of moving forward — using minimal dialogue and poetic visual language.

His ongoing body of work spans music videos, narrative experiments, and character-driven pieces, forming an evolving universe centered around voice, identity, and digital-era storytelling.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In “Nono’s Sakura,” I wanted to focus on a moment that is almost too small to be noticed—the quiet shift before a person decides to move forward.

The film does not build toward a dramatic turning point. Instead, it stays close to stillness: the pause in breath, the weight of hesitation, and the fragile space where thought begins to turn into action.

By working with a minimal structure of voice, light, and movement, I aimed to let the emotion emerge without being declared. The character does not explain herself; she exists within a passing moment, carried by rhythm and atmosphere.

Using AI as a medium allowed me to shape this sense of presence gently, where images do not insist, but accompany. The result is not a story of change, but a trace of it.

At the end, what remains is simple: not a resolution, but a quiet permission to take the next step.