Turkish Distributor Baska Sinema Acquires Theatrical Rights to AI-Generated Feature 'A Woman Asleep' for Spring 2027 Release

Turkish arthouse distributor Baska Sinema has picked up domestic theatrical rights to "A Woman Asleep," an 80-minute experimental AI-generated drama directed by Vikki Bardot, with a spring 2027 release planned across 20 cities in Turkey. Produced by Turkish AI studio Spongeworthy — also behind the theatrically released AI documentary "Post Truth" — the film took two years to complete, assembled from a pool of 50,000 individual shots. Its narration was generated using an AI voice clone trained on Bardot's own voice, a creative choice the filmmakers describe as placing the film "in a space between the human and the synthetic."

The acquisition marks a notable moment for AI-generated long-form cinema reaching mainstream theatrical distribution. Bardot, considered one of the early practitioners of photographic and video AI art, frames the project as a case for AI enabling formally ambitious, personally driven independent filmmaking rather than replicating Hollywood conventions. Baska Sinema director Armagan Lale echoed that position, stating the distributor's interest lies in how filmmakers use new tools to expand cinema's expressive possibilities rather than in the technology itself.