UTOPAI STUDIOS TO PRESENT AND INVEST IN HYO-JOO YANG’S HALF MOON AS PART OF EXPANDING FILM SLATE

Utopai Studios today announced that it will present, co-produce, and invest in Half Moon, the new German-Korean live-action feature from Silver Bear-winning filmmaker Hyo-joo Yang, as part of the company’s expanding original film slate.

The film will be co-produced by Germany’s In Good Company and Korea’s Paper Barn Studios, alongside Utopai Studios. Half Moon has received support from German public funding and is scheduled to begin principal photography in Germany in August 2026.

The announcement marks another step in Utopai Studios’ push to build a global, filmmaker-driven studio model focused on original films, international co-productions, and emerging creative voices.

Written and directed by Yang, Half Moon follows Yeri and Ah-Jin, niece and aunt, but strangers to each other, as they spend a fractured summer together on a remote North Sea island. Yeri is isolated at school and emotionally neglected at home. Ah-Jin is living in self-imposed exile, working as a caregiver while carrying the physical and psychological wounds of her past. Over the course of the summer they learn to understand and respect each other, and eventually accept who they are. The film explores loneliness, family trauma, belonging, and emotional repair through the relationship between a young girl and the aunt she barely knows.

The cast includes Rina Kim, Elisa Hofmann, and Ana Kim. Rina Kim stars as Yeri, a bullied thirteen-year-old Korean-German girl whose summer on a remote North Sea island becomes a turning point in her life. Hofmann, whose credits include Blackout bei Wellmanns, Tatort: Schattenleben, and House of Yang, plays Ah-Jin, Yeri’s emotionally wounded aunt. Ana Kim, whose credits include Doom Doom, Now, We Are Breaking Up, and Nightingale Blush, plays Su-jin, Yeri’s mother.

Yang’s acclaimed short Broken Night won the Sonje Award at the Busan International Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlinale. Half Moon marks her feature directorial debut.

Cinematography is by Alexandra Medianikova, whose credits include the German Film Prize-winning Rå and the documentary Beyond the White, for which she was nominated for the German Cinematography Award.

PAI, Utopai Studios’ cinematic storytelling AI system, will be used to support select visual elements in the film. Half Moon will remain grounded in live-action performance, director-led storytelling, and traditional cinematic craft, with PAI serving as a production tool for specific visual components of Yang’s creative vision.

“Half Moon is a story about the pain we carry from childhood, the people who unexpectedly teach us how to survive, and the small vows we make to keep going,” said Yang. “I wanted to tell a story that begins with alienation, but gradually opens toward compassion and the possibility of light, even in the darkest moments.”

“Some of the most urgent and emotionally powerful films come from independent filmmakers, but too many passion projects struggle to reach audiences because they do not have the infrastructure, resources, or market support to move from vision to production,” said Cecilia Shen, Co-Founder and CEO of Utopai Studios. “Utopai Studios is building a new studio model to help change that. Half Moon represents exactly the kind of filmmaker-driven, internationally relevant story we want to champion – deeply human, visually ambitious, and built around a singular creative voice.”

“Hyojoo Yang is an outstanding director. Her short is a small masterpiece – meticulously structured and precisely executed. Every camera angle, every cut, every sound bit is the result of a conscious decision. But what is really striking with Yang is that she has the rare ability to put into a small sequence of images the core essence of the film. These moments transcend movies beyond borders and make cinema truly bigger than life. And that is why we want to work with her, and with Utopai. This collaboration will give us the possibility to support Hyojoo Yang’s unique visual language, maintaining her point of view,” said producers Roshanak Behesht Nedjad and Younghong Chung.

“With Half Moon, we are backing Hyo-joo Yang, a talented and bold filmmaker, and the type of international co-production Utopai Studios wants to support,” said Hyun Park, President of Utopai Studios East. “One of our goals is to help filmmakers realize cinematic moments that may otherwise be difficult to achieve within the constraints of independent film financing – in service of the director’s vision and film’s emotional core.”

Among its current projects are Bedford Park, with Hyun Park serving as executive producer. The Stephanie Ahn film premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.