Koreeda’s ‘Sheep in the Box’ Fights AI Copying

With Amazon dropping Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” A24 partnering with Google DeepMind, and the awards season tightening around AI debates, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Cannes entry “Sheep in the Box” lands as a counterpoint: a near-future grief drama where a humanoid

When the world’s entertainment calendar starts to feel like an AI countdown, Hirokazu Koreeda is quietly pushing back. His 2026 Cannes entry. “Sheep in the Box. ” doesn’t arrive as another glowing promise of technology or a sleek warning about robots. It opens a different question—what happens to grief when it’s offered the shape of a person you can’t bring back.

That tone lands especially hard as AI spreads through the industry’s biggest conversations and deals. Amazon dropped Luca Guadagnino’s allegedly scathing Sam Altman drama “Artificial” amid the company’s lucrative partnership with OpenAI. and A24 partnered with Google DeepMind for “research purposes.” In a season when nearly every screen seems to be orbiting artificial intelligence. “Sheep in the Box” asks whether imagination matters more than replication.

Koreeda’s film, written and directed by him, takes place in a recognizably near-future. A grieving couple—recently shaken by the tragic accident that kills their son—choose to adopt a humanoid child. The child looks and sounds the same as the boy they lost.

The cast includes Daigo, Rimu Kuwaki, and Haruka Ayase. Koreeda is also returning to the territory that’s shaped so much of his career. even as he threads sci-fi elements through something that feels more intimate than explosive. Audiences expecting a classic AI dystopia are met with a plaintive grief drama instead.

“A lot of people were expecting some AI dystopian, controlled-by-robots story and that they are surprised that it doesn’t end that way, for better or worse,” Koreeda told IndieWire at Cannes.

Even the title points to the human imagination Koreeda wants to protect. “Sheep in the Box” references Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved classic book “The Little Prince.” Koreeda says he was inspired to write and direct the film after reading an article about a Chinese company attempting to use generative AI to bring back the dead.

There’s a specific kind of discomfort at the heart of the story. Koreeda’s films often move through the perspective of children, but here the unsettling weight falls on adults. The humanoid child’s perspective only starts to emerge toward the end of the movie. and Koreeda describes how he shaped that unease.

“I didn’t tell him to act like a robot, but I directed the adults in a way that they would find that uncomfortable,” Koreeda said of directing the child actor, Rimu Kuwaki.

That choice matters in a film that’s already being framed by the broader awards-year debate—because while Japan is more likely to go with Cannes double Best Actress winner “All of a Sudden” (from Oscar nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi) for its Best International Feature Oscar entry. Koreeda’s “Sheep in the Box” keeps steering the attention back to the emotional center. The director behind “Shoplifters”—which earned a Best International Feature Oscar nomination in 2019—has arrived with a story that doesn’t treat AI as a villain or a savior. It treats it as a temptation that lands on the hardest day in a family’s life.

Neon opens “Sheep in the Box” in New York City and Los Angeles starting Friday, July 24, with more dates to follow.

Hirokazu Koreeda Sheep in the Box 2026 Cannes AI in entertainment Luca Guadagnino Artificial Sam Altman Amazon OpenAI A24 Google DeepMind generative AI The Little Prince Shoplifters Haruka Ayase Rimu Kuwaki Neon