Bold is used to describe too many campaigns. Bianca Poletti’s film, FaceTweak, is what bold work is really like. The film is also captivating, its story told by interweaving the thoughts of a teenage girl and the social media posts she is exposed to. The film follows a teenage girl who becomes immersed in AI face-tuning, pushing her to extremes to reach online “perfection”.
With a sharp, Black Mirror-inspired tone, FaceTweak offers a unfiltered commentary on beauty, technology, and the increasing societal pressure today – raising the question, When is enough truly enough?
It blends humour and discomfort to highlight this slippery slope between harmless experimentation and an unhealthy obsession with digital perfection.
Recent studies underscore the worrying impact this has on young people’s mental health. Girlguiding’s latest figures reveal that 54% of girls aged 11–21 wish they looked like the filtered versions of themselves on social media, and 36% feel pressured to use beauty filters. Similarly, Internet Matters, a children’s online safety non-profit, reports that “beautifying filters contributed to a distorted worldview in which perfected images are normalised”, leading to “significant social pressure” to conform to unrealistic standards – often without young users even realising the images are edited. With the number of social media users projected to rise to six billion by 2027 – the influence of digital platforms on body image and self-perception is only set to increase with it.
FaceTweak was conceived spontaneously during pre-production for Poletti’s latest project, Video Barn, that recently premiered at SXSW. With extra time remaining after filming the trailer, the idea quickly took shape, with the script finalised just a week before shooting. Inspired by a surge of TikTok videos featuring teenagers altering their faces with AI filters and even undergoing plastic surgery to match their digitally enhanced images, Poletti was compelled to delve deeper into this evolving online phenomenon.
She commented, “When does tweaking our image stop? When is it enough? When do we feel complete + “perfect?” The substance is a great ref for this, focusing on aging, but again, taking things to the extreme.”
Poletti’s work often navigates different facets of the human psyche, bringing together vivid aesthetics with strong, character-driven narratives. Her portfolio spans music videos, commercials, and narrative films, with projects earning accolades from SXSW, Vimeo Staff Picks, and CICLOPE. FaceTweak exemplifies her boundary-pushing vision, brought to life by a talented team of collaborators – including cinematographer, Kayla Hoff; editor, Dusten Zimmerman at Cabin Edit; VFX by Parliament, and vibrant production design by Sara Fern.
Find out more about Poletti and her work here.
Credits:
Directed & Written by: Bianca Poletti
Starring: Bix Krieger
Production Companies: Zauberberg & Primo
Executive Producers: Frank Siegl, Andrea Roman Perse, & Jaime Vidal
Producer: Beverly Amidon
Cinematographer: Kayla Hoff
Editing: Dusten Zimmerman @ Cabin Edit
Colour: Mikey Rossiter @ Rare Medium
VFX: Parliament
Music Supervision: Abbey Hendrix
Sound Design + Mix: Natalie Huizenga
Music Post House: Field Day
Wardrobe: Abigail Summer Francis
Production Design: Sara Fern
Title Design: Fifty One Eight
