Private Project

WOKE UP IN AN ASHTRAY

Welcome to The Post-Human Era.
In a world where the boundaries between humans and machines have been abolished, now that death has been overcome and eternity is in sight, is there a soul left alive ?

  • Justine Gasquet
    Director
  • Amine Boucekkine
    Producer
  • Justine Gasquet
    Producer
  • Amine Boucekkine
    Music & Sound Design
    Dead Dreams Falling
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Music Video
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Experimental AI Music Video, Horror
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 8 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 2, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    France
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • CineFantasy - International Fantastic Film Festival
    Sao Paulo
    Brazil
    September 10, 2025
    Latin American Premiere
    Best AI Fantastic Short Film
  • The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction and Supernatural Film Festival
    New York
    April 6, 2025
    Official Selection
  • San Francisco Another Hole In the Head Film Festival
    San Francisco
    Official Selection
  • Festival CinemaZERO
    Trento
    Italy
    November 30, 2024
    Official Selection
  • Over The Real X
    Lucca
    Italy
    Finalist
  • Dracula Film Festival
    Brasov
    Romania
    October 30, 2024
    Official Selection
  • Mashup Film Festival
    Paris
    France
    September 28, 2025
    Official Selection
  • Cannes 7th Art Awards
    Cannes
    Official Selection
  • AI Film Cannes Awards
    Cannes
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Justine Gasquet

Born in Lyon, Justine Gasquet studied at the Beaux-Arts and the Fémis. Having previously worked on productions in Los Angeles, London and Montreal, she lives in Paris where she works mainly as a matte painter. At the same time, she also directs music videos and experimental films, in addition to developing a drawn work.

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Director Statement

Statement from Amine Boucekkine as a producer for this project.
Please note that generative AI has been used to produce the visual content of this video, though we firmly believe that the artistic value of the project lies mainly in the way the generated visuals have been put together and articulated throughout a consistent narrative in accordance with a global vision and concept.
Generative AI was not used to create the music and the sound design.
Director Justine Gasquet relied on my music to articulate specific visions of an auto-generative world where the boundaries between organicity and artificiality, humans and machines, life and death, have all been abolished. Therefore, in order to question the nature of this world and to fully embrace its ambiguity, the use of artificial intelligence seems to be particularly interesting and relevant as a way to go full circle. I see it as a sort of "mise en abyme" of generative AI that is meant to immerse the audience into the questionings such perspectives raise.
Additional technical information : public screenings can be done either with a DCP (with 2 sound options: 5.1 or stereo) or a digital stereo file (codec ProRes or H264).