Their Eyes

a film by

France | 23' | 02/2025 | documentary

How does a machine learn to read the world? Testimonies and screen recordings introduce the experience of online micro-workers from the Global South: their job is to teach the AI of self-driving cars to navigate the streets of the Global North.

“a relevant meditation on how technology is shaping our perception of the world”
Square Eyes - 75_IFB_BerlinaleShorts__bw
Square Eyes - CIFF.Shorts.Laurels.2025-13
Square Eyes - Ajyal Selection_DFF laurel
“a relevant meditation on how technology is shaping our perception of the world”
Square Eyes - 75_IFB_BerlinaleShorts__bw
Square Eyes - CIFF.Shorts.Laurels.2025-13
Square Eyes - Ajyal Selection_DFF laurel
Crew Festivals Press materials Jury statements

Nicolas Gourault

Biography

Nicolas Gourault is an artist and filmmaker based in Paris (FR) with a background in visual arts and visual studies. He has worked with Forensic Architecture before graduating from Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts. His work is imbued with this double training, navigating between online open-source investigations and the critical use of new media as documentary tools. His films and video installations explore the power relationships embedded in technologies and tries to build counter-narratives through the use of situated testimony and experimental image-making. His artworks have been exhibited in film festivals and contemporary art venues.

Filmography

  • Their Eyes – 2025
  • VO – 2020
  • This Means More – 2019
Square Eyes -

Crew

Director, screenplay: Nicolas Gourault
Producer: Don Quichotte Films: Yannick Beauquis & Quentin Brayer
Cinematographer: Yvon, Oliver, Jonel
Motion Design, graphics: Nicolas Gourault
Sound Recording: Etienne André
Sound Design: Etienne André
Editor: Lucas Azémar, Félix Rehm, Nicolas Gourault

Festivals

70+ selections, 14 awards

Select highlights:

  • Berlinale, Germany (13 – 23 February, 2025)
    Berlinale Shorts
  • Glasgow Short Film Festival, United Kingdom (19 – 23 March, 2025)
    Competition Special Mention
  • Go Short – International Short Film Festival, the Netherlands (1 – 6 April, 2025)
    European Competition
  • FICCI – Cartagena De Indias International Film Festival, Colombia (1 – 6 April, 2025)
    Official Selection
  • Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong (10 – 21 April, 2025)
    Short Film Competition     Won: Firebird Award
  • IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Portugal (1 – 11 May, 2025)
    International Competition Won: EMEL Short Film Grand Prize
  • Flatpack Film Festival, United Kingdom (9 – 17 May, 2025)
    Competition  Won: Best Short Film
  • Camden International Film Festival, United States (11 – 14 September, 2025)
    Competition Won: CIFF award for Best Documentary Short Film
  • Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, Romania (22 – 28 September, 2025)
    International Short Film Competition  Won: Best Visual Concept Award  

Password




Press materials

EPK: Click here

Stills & directors’ photos: Click here

Dialogue lists – English & French: Click here

Downloadable trailer: Vimeo & Youtube

Jury statements

The film opens a metaphysical hole beneath our feet, whose darkness stares back at us with frightening questions about human value and dignity in today’s world. For its precise and empathetic investigation, annotation and experimentation.
Jury statement – Hong Kong IFF – Firebird Award

Starting from a minimal visual motif, this film builds into an anthropological exploration of the unseen human work behind the development of AI technology. In doing so, it embodies the need to use contemporary tools to talk about contemporary realities, while exposing the discrepancies in the urban landscape along the North-South divide. Overall, it is a relevant meditation on how technology is shaping our perception of the world.
Jury statement – Indielisboa – EMEL Short Film Granz Prize

For the delicate attention to the workers, lives, and labor behind a machinery of images whose ends serve self-driving cars in the Western world, shifting its focus from these ends to what is left outside the frame – the music played during work, the exploitative wages and the strategies to resist them, and the curiosity for their environments in places such as Venezuela, Kenya, and the Philippines, the jury has decided to award Their Eyes by Nicolas Gourault, A powerful act of agency in a world where AI seems to be robbing us of it.
Jury statement – Syncro Film Fest – Best Film in the Parallel Universes Competition

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