Manchester Animation Festival

Brainrot!

Dir. Alex Semenov | United States

Humanity’s intelligence was once caused by an ancient alien parasite living inside the human brain. But after centuries of evolution, modern internet culture finally discovers how to kill it. As people consume endless streams of algorithmic “brainrot” content, the parasite slowly dies, and humanity begins devolving back into primitive ape-like creatures. Told as a fake retro sci-fi pharmaceutical advertisement, the film satirises doomscrolling, conspiracy culture, and the gradual collapse of attention spans in the digital age.

The film features narration by actor Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”) as part of a creative collaboration on the project.