AT Lab’s Short Film Tropic Wins Best Cinematography at the 30^th Fantasia Festival

The short film Tropic (2026), produced by the Art and Technology Lab (AT Lab) at K-Arts, received the Best Cinematography award at the 30th Fantasia Festival. Held in Montreal, Canada, Fantasia is one of North America’s leading film festivals and is recognized as one of the world’s three major genre film festivals, alongside the Sitges Film Festival and Fantastic Fest.

Tropic was selected as the final project of the 1st Virtual Production Competition, co-hosted by the K-Arts AT Lab and VA Corporation in 2023. The film tells the story of Sun, who struggles with the trauma of her sister’s suicide and unexpectedly confronts her repressed emotions after becoming trapped in a space where reality and memory merge. The film was directed by Park Jung-yoon, a student in the Department of Multimedia in the School of Film, TV & Multimedia, who effectively visualized the character’s abstract fear through virtual production technology.

Park said, “I deeply appreciate all the support I have received from my team, AT Lab, and VA Corporation. I will continue striving to grow as a better director.” Lee Seung-moo, head of AT Lab and professor in the Department of Filmmaking, commented, “This achievement is the result of our students’ creative efforts and AT Lab’s research capabilities in creative technology.”

AT Lab is an interdisciplinary research center that explores virtual production, VR, and immersive theater. It has gained international recognition through works such as Rain Fruits (2020) and Scarecrow (2023), which were presented at Sundance, Cannes, and Tribeca. In addition, 8 p.m. and a Cat (2025) was invited to the Venice Film Festival last year.