Eyal Padan
Eyal Padan is an Israeli independent filmmaker, writer and director. After a career spanning marketing, creative and digital media, he moved into scriptwriting and directing, and now works at the intersection of storytelling and emerging technology. He explores what it means to be human through non-human protagonists - animals, robots and objects - and quiet, understated emotional endings. He works with AI production tools without letting them set the story, and his films are selected not only in AI categories but alongside conventionally produced shorts. He directs two ongoing short-form series, Robot Hotel and the mockumentary series You Can't Ask That, alongside standalone shorts. His films have been selected and awarded at festivals across three continents. Selected filmography: The Bird, The Snail, The Ant, The Shoe, The Parrot, The Goldfish, The Crow, The Clock, The Power Point Man (2026); Robot Hotel, eleven episodes from Two Robots to Robot Q&A (2026); You Can't Ask That, eight episodes from Waldo to The Phantom of the Opera (2026); Mister Propeller, parts 1 and 2 (Jul 2026); Last Day of School (Aug 2026); In Love with Bureaucracy (Sep 2026); Fed Up (Sep 2026).
10/14/20264 min read
INTERVIEW Eyal Padan
Can you explain to the audience your career?
I spent years as a creative in advertising and digital marketing, writing concepts and campaigns that had to land an idea in a short time. That training never left me. Today I'm an independent filmmaker: I write, direct and produce my own short films, working where storytelling meets new production technology.
How many years have you been making movies?
As an independent filmmaker, making my own films, about a year. As a storyteller, and as the person responsible for bringing advertising projects to television or any other screen (social media etc.) - more than fifteen years. Advertising was my film school.
-Why did you start making movies?
For years I had ideas I couldn't produce without a crew and a budget. When AI production tools became good enough, I realized the only thing standing between me and the film was me. So, I started.
Tell us a little about your project. What will the audience be able to see in your film?
Fed Up is a four-minute comedy about Reg, a talking goldfish who lives in the fountain of an English market town. For eleven years people have thrown in a golden coin, thirty pounds each, and Reg has granted them three wishes. Nobody has ever asked him how he is doing. The film is about what happens when the one who always gives decides he's had enough. It looks like a family animation, but underneath it's about everyone who is taken for granted.
Why did you do this project?
I'm interested in working with heroes who aren't necessarily human - animals, robots, objects - because they let us look at very human things without getting defensive. Reg is anyone who gives and gives and is never asked. Some people give energy and some only take it, and living among the takers wears you down. Everyone knows someone like Reg. Many of us are that someone.
One of the problems some directors encounter is directing actors and dealing with some actors, especially in the amateur world. How do you see this topic? What kind of work do you do with them?
My case is unusual: Fed Up has no actors on set. The characters are created with AI tools and voiced with AI voices. I direct them through the script, through take after take of every line until the timing and the attitude are right, and through choosing the exact frame where a look says what the dialogue doesn't. Reg's voice alone went through several candidates before one sounded like him. It's a bit like holding an audition for every single generated shot and fixing it again and again until it comes out right.
A good movie takes care of all departments. But normally we can not allocate all the resources to have a good photography or spend a lot of money on sound post production or budget to hire actors. In your project what % have you allocated to. I don't just mean money but time as well. Of 100% of the time/money, what % did you dedicate to each department?
In AI filmmaking the categories blur. Generating a single shot is photography, art direction and acting at the same time, so I can't honestly split the film into neat percentages. It was one continuous loop - write, generate, listen, cut, and go back again - until the film worked.
If you could go back, what would you change about this project? (1 thing only)
I'd give myself a few more hours. Not to change the story - just to sit a little longer with a few shots. Every filmmaker knows that feeling.
What are you happiest about this project?
That it reached people far beyond festivals. On Instagram the film passed a quarter of a million views in its first three days, and people responded to the story, not the technology. One viewer wrote, "Thank you, important lesson." Another just wished it was longer. It's one of those things you don't expect to happen, and when it does, it's lovely.
Make a wish to the movie gods. What do you ask?
Three wishes, of course - but I'd ask the fish how he's doing first.
What movie would you have liked to direct?
That's a hard one for me. Honestly, probably films in the spirit of the ones I already make - films I'd be happy to keep making for a long time, and to get better with every new film.
What kind of cinema do you like? Genre, directors, actors?
Films that are a little bit of everything at once: funny, smart and moving, sometimes in the same scene. Funny on the surface and sad underneath, and animation that isn't only for children.
Imagine that all the movies are going to be lost. If you could save 3 movies, what would they be?
They would probably be three Pixar films - but I'd have a hard time choosing between them.
If you have more projects underway, can you give us a bit of information?
Yes - at the time of writing, I'm creating two ongoing series. Robot Hotel follows the robots who run a hotel; the newest episode, just released, sends an investigative reporter into the hotel. You Can't Ask That is a deadpan mockumentary series in which famous characters, like Waldo, Pac-Man and the Crying Boy, among others, answer anonymous questions they'd rather avoid.
Credit: Written, produced and directed by Eyal Padan.