Love Me

Alfred P. Sloan Prize, 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Official Selection, 2024 Sitges Film Festival

LOVE ME poses a fascinating question: What would happen if we left two AI beings alone with only each other? They’d fall in love, of course. In a post-apocalyptic Earth, only two sentient beings remain: a smart buoy floating aimlessly in the ocean and a lonely satellite orbiting the planet. Scouring the remains of the internet for cues of human interaction, they stumble upon the channel of two influencers, embodied by Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, to shape their identities. For better and for worse, learning love through vloggers results in some awkward, funny, and endearing moments. Using a mix of animation, SIMs-like avatars, and live action, their connection deepens over billions of years, as they experience a snippet of life as humans once did and explore the complexities of identity, emotions, desires, and relationships. With their growing sentience, they must learn to adapt to each other’s needs, all while falling in love like we humans might.

As the two machines withstand the might of time and space, they ponder existential questions such as: What is life? What is love? What does it mean to be? As one floats in the sea and the other drifts in space, the buoy and the satellite laugh, cry, and ultimately try to discover what it truly means to exist.

– Matthias Hong