The director of the first Chinese animated feature film to be shown internationally said the lines between real actors and computer-created ones will continue to blur.
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Sun Lijun, who made 2011's Legend of a Rabbit, also predicted films would vary more in length and offer increased interactivity for viewers.
Professor Sun is a guest of the Brisbane Asia-Pacific Film Festival in his capacity as vice-president of the Beijing Film Academy.
During an art-meets-technology panel at the Griffith Film School on Tuesday, he said films like Avatar and The Life of Pi were leading the way in replacing people with pixels.
"In the future they will be blended, so audiences will find it hard to tell who is a real actor or animated actor," he said through a translator.
He joked that increasingly sharper definition will show up actors' flaws.
"You will be able to see everything on their face, not even make-up will be able to disguise things – they will be ugly," he said.
"If you use animation technology, you don't have to use real people, you can use animated images to tell a story."
Professor Sun said there would also be a trend towards films made to shorter lengths, fuelled by younger consumers used to watching media on tablets and phones.
"Every cinema uses the Hollywood, 90-minute standard movie style," he said.
"As a comparison, if we only had one type of car running on the roads, it doesn't make sense, you wouldn't be able to satisfy everyone - the same thing is true of filmmaking.
"In the future, if cinemas showed short films, it means young people would have more opportunities to show their work, and audiences will have more variety to choose from ."
Professor Sun said he was particularly excited about interactive cinemas, which would see filmmakers shoot different versions of the film and allow audiences to pick which way the story should go.
"You will have a special device so you can actually change the story, like an RPG [roleplaying] game."
"For example, a love story could have many different endings."
Professor Sun, who will attend Thursday night's prestigious Asia-Pacific Screen Awards at City Hall, said he hoped BAPFF would continue to grow.
"As a dynamic city, I think it's appropriate for Brisbane to host this event, as filmmaking is a dynamic form of art," he said.
Professor Sun even said he had taken up jogging and cycling after his first visit to Brisbane two years ago.
"I arrived here two days ago, but I've already jogged last night and this morning," he said.
"Whenever I'm in difficulty, I'll think about my time spent jogging along Brisbane River."
