Nigerian Team Completes ASIRI ILU AWON OSU, a Three-Hour Yoruba Feature With AI Generating 80% of Its Visuals

A Yoruba-language sci-fi feature reached completion using AI for roughly 80% of its visuals, with human direction and live-action performance covering the rest. The result is a finished, more-than-three-hour hybrid-AI feature, as Nigerian filmmakers described to Punch.

• AI handled about 80% of the visuals. The creators say human direction and live-action performances accounted for the remaining 20%, keeping actors and directors in the loop rather than replacing them.
• It runs more than three hours. ASIRI ILU AWON OSU (Mystery of Osu Land) spans Parts 1 and 2, a sci-fi epic co-created by Mysterious Tech Studio and Yoruba Nollywood actress Tanwa Hameed, known as Asake Omogbajumo.
• Lower cost, less equipment, smaller crews. The filmmakers frame AI as a way to cut the budget, gear, and crew barriers that block independent productions.
• Guinness declined the record bid. The team submitted the film for a longest-AI-and-human-co-created category, which Guinness World Records said had not been formally established.
• A global streaming release is planned. Mysterious Tech Studio says it will proceed with a worldwide release, targeting general audiences, critics, researchers, and technologists.

AI generated most of the imagery; direction, voices, and live action stayed human

The filmmakers describe a hybrid approach: advanced AI tools generated most of the imagery, while direction, voices, and live-action performance stayed human. They developed the project over three months and built the story around society, power, and humanity, drawing on Yoruba culture and the wider African cultural experience.

The stated goal was blending generated imagery with Yoruba language and cultural elements without erasing cultural identity. The creators say the AI use was meant to complement human creativity and give filmmakers additional storytelling tools, not to replace creative professionals.

A contested "first," and a record category that did not exist

The filmmakers call it the world's first photorealistic and longest Yoruba feature film powered by AI. They submitted it to Guinness World Records under a proposed category for the longest cinematic film co-created by AI and a human director.

Guinness declined the application after review, saying the proposed category had not been formally established. The filmmakers treated the outcome as administrative. "The title rejection does not change reality. The film exists. It was completed. And it was done first," they said in a joint statement.

Creators press the Federal Government for AI policy, infrastructure, and skills funding

Beyond the film itself, the creators are pressing the Federal Government to build an enabling environment for AI in the film sector: policy support, access to digital infrastructure, and skills development. They argue the combination could let Nigerian filmmakers produce ambitious projects at lower cost and push indigenous stories to international audiences.

That cost-and-financing argument is a familiar one. Director Roger Avary has credited an AI approach with unlocking film financing that was hard to secure before. Mysterious Tech Studio says ASIRI ILU AWON OSU will debut on major streaming platforms.