I am truly amazed and deeply inspired by the outstanding quality and creativity of the submissions we have received for the Docuthon competition. The dedication, artistry, and insightful storytelling exhibited by all participants have far exceeded our expectations. Through your lenses, we see a future where AI and human ingenuity converge to create solutions that offer hope and healing. We embarked on this competition to share our story and to inspire a new generation of filmmakers and scientists. You have done more than just tell our story — you have enriched it, adding new layers of perspective and emotion that resonate deeply with audiences from all walks of life.
As the Docuthon concludes, our journey remains in action. We will continue our relentless pursuit of innovation, striving to enhance the quality of life for everyone on the planet. Thank you for your hard work, passion, and for joining us on this remarkable journey. We are not just documenting history; we are making it.
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov
Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine
WINNERS
Docuthon Winner
Junyue Wang
Best Editing
Shin
Honorable Mention
Ekarthaan Studio
Special Award
The Afghan Dreamers
MEET THE JUDGES
Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov
Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine
Alvaro A. Ricciardelli
Spanish/Argentinian journalist, producer, filmmaker and editor
Oren Rosenfeld
Multi Emmy Award winning Documentary Filmmaker
Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
Presenter, podcast host and self-shooting filmmaker for the BBC and Fast Company
Taryn Southern
Award-winning artist, storyteller and strategist
Laila Kazmi
Multi Emmy Award winning producer, Sr. Content Manager and Producer at Amazon
All the docs capture that in different ways. There is also a sense of "mission" in all the interviews. The story is showing us that there are many positive ways of making AI work in favor of everyone's well being in a world where everyone seems to be talking about AI, and is focusing on its potential risks.
Alvaro Alvarez Ricciardelli
Spanish/Argentinian journalist, producer, filmmaker and editor
Very good editing, it grabs you from the very first second, making the complicated easy to understand using good analogy. The bit about the needle in a haystack is also really good here. Levitt again is really good, with quotes like "it's not random, the procedure is revolutionary". There is a very nice sound bite from Kaifu Li. He talks about "conflict in the making".
Alvaro Alvarez Ricciardelli
This documentary does a nice job of framing the story of Insilico Medicine and the motivation and passion behind their work. It tells us what's at stake and how the innovative approach of using generative AI for drug discovery can be a game changer for medicine. The story is engaging and leaves you wanting to learn more.
Insilico Present
Larry Zhang
Laila Kazmi
Taryn Southern
The most creative and poetic introduction – gave me chills!
Multi Emmy Award winning producer, Sr. Content Manager and Producer at Amazon
Award-winning artist, storyteller and strategist
Spanish/Argentinian journalist, producer, filmmaker and editor
Excellent use of AI visuals. This piece was well done from all perspectives – technically well executed, thematically clear, well-paced, and beautiful integration of both education and impact.
Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
The film set out the challenge ahead "How do we make people live longer?" and showcased some relevant and well selected comments and thoughts from the medical, scientific and AI experts. I liked the use of the closing comments from Dr. Michael Levitt: "Human health is a basic human right, which echoed back well to the premise at the start of the film and highlighted Insilico's achievements. Overall, this is an in depth and well-structured look at a complicated topic, highlighting the transformative work being done in the field of AI drug discovery.
Presenter, podcast host and self-shooting filmmaker for the BBC and Fast Company
Insilico Presents: Larry Zhang
"Coding the Impossible Cure"
As a filmmaker and artist, I once perceived science as confined to numbers and calculations, lacking in the exploration of dreams, emotions, and romance. However, as I sifted through the footage, I discovered that experts in AI and drug development possess even more curiosity, creativity, and passion to their craft. The success of Insilico Medicine isn't solely attributed to the advancement of AI. it's the individuals collaborating, imagining, leaping without safety ropes who bridged the gap between a novel technology and a finely tuned methodology. As I delved deeper into crafting the story, I came to realize that AI serves as the nexus where art and science converge from opposite ends of a circular spectrum. The overarching concept revolves around utilizing AI to heal humanity and extend healthy longevity.
Docuthon Winner
Junyue Wang
Laila Kazmi
The film provides a thorough summary of Insilico's innovative approach of using Generative AI to expedite drug discovery, at a fraction of the cost, and a much greater likelihood of success than the current methods. The film succeeds in coveting the key points about this process.
Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
The introduction instantly made the story relatable to a global society and set up an intriguing concept. The complexity of the science and the idea of generating small molecules from scratch was well handled and clearly described for the audience. The results of Insilico's AI drug development were also well established.
Oren Rosenfeld
The video opens with a good introduction that sets the stage for the subsequent exploration of Insilico Medicine's innovative approach. Wang does a good job in weaving together interviews with the experts, research footage, and illustrative animations to provide a comprehensive overview of the company's AI-driven drug discovery platform. Her thoughtful selection of clips and skillful editing contribute to a well-paced and engaging narrative that showcases the transformative potential of AI in the field of drug discovery.
Multi Emmy Award winning Documentary Filmmaker
Presenter, podcast host and self-shooting filmmaker for the BBC and Fast Company
Alvaro Alvarez Ricciardelli
We want to impact and enable others", a great focus on sharing knowledge rather than competition. The ending is also very good. The doc achieves a difficult balance between making it accessible and dumbing difficult concepts down. Hope, universal health, helping others, using technology for the common good are all concepts that will resonate with the audience.
Spanish/Argentinian journalist, producer, filmmaker and editor
Multi Emmy Award winning producer, Sr. Content Manager and Producer at Amazon
Graduate Student at Columbia University, Film Editor
Docuthon Winner: Junyue Wang
This is not just a story about technological advancement; it's about changing and saving lives. I hope this documentary will provoke deeper reflections on the integration of AI with the pharmaceutical industry and raise awareness of the immense potential and value of technology in the healthcare sector.
Best Editing
Shin
Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
There was an interesting connection made between the process of ageing and the process of fibrosis and how that helped to move the research forward. I enjoyed the addition of Xiao Ding describing how Chemistry42 fits into the process and the focus on the efforts of the whole team. It did well to establish the challenges in combining AI with medicine and drug development.
Presenter, podcast host and self-shooting filmmaker for the BBC and Fast Company
Alvaro Alvarez Ricciardelli
There is a good range of diverse voices, a balance in personal stories, and good choices when deciding which themes to explore further. Sometimes there is a bit too much technical jargon, but not too much to make the audience confused. In my opinion, this one achieves the best balance in terms of story, information and storytelling.
Spanish/Argentinian journalist, producer, filmmaker and editor
Big Pharma Veteran, Commercial Editor
Best Editing: Shin
"Growing The Fruit of AI"
I used to work in the traditional pharmaceutical industry. Docuthon has been an inspiring experience. In recent years, generative AI has become the elephant in the room, and Insilico Medicine has kept abreast of the times and successfully combined artificial intelligence with drug discovery to address the pain points of traditional pharmaceuticals.
I'm from the same town as Dr. Ren, and it made me feel proud to witness their significant contributions to the advancement of drug development for the benefit of our community.
We’re an all-girls' robotics team in Afghanistan risks it all to prove that we can compete against anyone in the world, and demonstrates that girls can become scientists and engineers instead of teenage brides. Robots are incredible tools that can help us reach new capabilities, especially in healthcare and medicine. By integrating automation and AI to every bit of detail in a target identification workflow, Insilico’s AI-powered robotics lab can easily analyze large amount and make decisions without human interference. It has made target identification much faster, cheaper and more accurate. And it’s super fun to watch the robot dancing too!
Honorable Mention
Ekarthaan Studio
Amelia Martyn-Hemphill
It was helpful to set up the film with a broad definition of AI before going into the details of the story. The challenges, the potential opportunity and the futuristic new use cases for AI and medicine were effectively established for the viewer. The ending of the film tied back well to the beginning and made good use of the futuristic robot shots. The piece captured a sense of excitement and positivity in the ongoing development of AI and its future applications.
Presenter, podcast host and self-shooting filmmaker for the BBC and Fast Company
Laila Kazmi
This film does a great job of telling the story of AI and how the use of this technology can revolutionize drug discovery. The documentary is best suited for scientific and academic audiences for making the case for this innovative technology to speed up development of medicine at large scale and increase likelihood of success in clinical trials.
Multi Emmy Award winning producer, Sr. Content Manager and Producer at Amazon