2026-07-06 15:00 UTCIn-site rewrite1 min readUpdated: 2026-07-06 15:17 UTC

Into the spider’s lair: how an Australian film-maker made an impossible documentary with AI

Australian digital content designer Jodie Heenan's AI-generated short film 'Guardians of the Burrow' won a prize at the Omni international AI film festival. The film depicts a giant Amazonian tarantula and a tiny dotted humming frog sharing a burrow in extraordinary detail, all created without any real footage.

SourceThe Guardian AIAuthor: Kelly Burke

Article intelligence

EngineersIntermediate

Key points

Jodie Heenan used AI tools to entirely generate the short film 'Guardians of the Burrow' without any live filming.
The film won an award at the Omni international AI film festival, judged by a panel led by director Alex Proyas.
It presents a realistic scene of a tarantula and a frog cohabiting, raising questions about AI's role in documentary filmmaking.
Heenan asserts that the AI-generated content 'looks and feels' real, challenging traditional notions of documentary authenticity.

Why it matters

This matters because jodie Heenan used AI tools to entirely generate the short film 'Guardians of the Burrow' without any live filming.

Technical impact

May affect developer workflows, team collaboration, automation capability, and toolchain choices.

This panel is AI-generated and reviewed for accuracy.

Jodie Heenan says her award-winning short film Guardians of the Burrow ‘looks and feels’ real

Scene: a dimly lit underground burrow. A giant Amazonian tarantula and a tiny dotted humming frog share the space, an unlikely duo captured in extraordinary detail.

Except, they haven’t been. Guardians of the Burrow, a short “wildlife documentary” by the Australian digital content designer Jodie Heenan, is entirely AI generated. At the weekend it won a prize in the Omni international AI film festival, adjudicated by a panel led by The Crow and Dark City director – and AI advocate – Alex Proyas.