AI International Film Festival · Guide

How to win the AI International Film Festival.Monthly in Hollywood. Judged blind. One film at a time.

The rules, how the blind jury and the audience decide, what the September winners did and a six-week plan to the next round. Then build the film in ScreenWeaver, from the first page to Seedance footage.
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  • Next event 18 October 2026
  • Blind jury, no names
  • Monthly rounds
Voidborn · Episode 0

Independent guide. ScreenWeaver does not organise the AI International Film Festival and is not affiliated with The AI Project. Rules read on 1 October 2026. Official site

Available today in ScreenWeaver: free screenwriting, and a storyboard generated from your screenplay with Storyboard Beta, $9.99 a month.

Rolling out: video generation of each shot, powered by Seedance, with the Filmmaker plan.

The rules on one card

What the festival requires.

Run by The AI Project, a California nonprofit, this festival has screened AI film since 2021 and now holds a screening every month in Hollywood. Its rules are short, and a few of them matter a lot.
Next event
18 October 2026, Vol. 27, Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory, Hollywood
Rounds
Monthly, on FilmFreeway. The 30 September early bird (screens 12 December) has closed
Judging
Blind: no name, no country. Jury and audience awards the same afternoon
What qualifies
Heavy use of AI tools, or a film about what AI does to society. Short, feature, series, vertical or horizontal
Length
No cap on the official site. The 12 September winners ran 2 to 18 minutes
Quality floor
English subtitles unless the film is in English. At least 720p HD
Entry fee
Not printed on the site. The Festhome listing showed $39 to $49 for an AI short
Prizes
Certificate and laurels. Optional trophy at $100 plus shipping. No cash prize listed

Source: aifilmfest.org (home page and its winner notes) and the festival's own listing on Festhome for the rules, fees and categories, read on 1 October 2026. The listing still shows a 14 November date in San Diego that the site does not: check FilmFreeway for the round you are entering.

Key dates

No single deadline, one round every month.

Each monthly round has its own cut-off. Count from the round you are aiming at, not from the calendar year.

  1. 15 Aug 2026

    August festival

    Hollywood. Manas, by Yihang Yang and Peize Wang, won Best AI Short.

  2. 12 Sep 2026

    September festival

    Five winning films from more than 100 submissions, all in one afternoon.

  3. 30 Sep 2026

    Early bird round closed

    This was the early bird deadline for the round that screens on 12 December. Check FilmFreeway for what is open now.

  4. 18 Oct 2026

    Vol. 27 in Hollywood

    AI International Film and Music Video Awards. Red carpet, welcome reception, screenings one at a time, Q&A after every film.

  5. 12 Dec 2026

    Early bird round screens

    The round that closed on 30 September, per the official site.

Who decides

A blind jury and a room of filmmakers.

The festival does not publish jury names. It does say how it judges, and that is unusual: nothing but the film reaches the jury.

  • A blind jury

    Founder Bert Holland says no name, no country and no contact gets through: “We watch only the film.” A logo, a studio card or a known face cannot help you. The film has to hold up alone.

  • The audience awards

    The room gives its own prizes the same afternoon: Best Film, Best Use of AI, Most Surprising. The festival says 85% of the room is filmmakers and industry, so the crowd knows how films are made.

  • The filmmaker on stage

    After each film the director takes questions, in the room or on screen from abroad. The director of Cracked Chimes said the imagery and voices were generative and the score was composed. Know your pipeline shot by shot, because you will be asked.

Four ways in

Pick the door your film uses.

A film qualifies if it uses AI tools heavily or if it looks at the consequences of AI. Those two ideas open four doors, each with its own categories.

  • 01

    Built with AI

    Films made with extensive AI tools: AI-native shorts, animation, experiments. Best AI Short and Best Use of AI sit here.

    Let the tools disappear into one clear idea. Yuki ran 18 minutes on a single parallel: a civilization in collapse against a living creature in a coma.

  • 02

    Consequences of AI

    Surveillance, warfare, superintelligence, addiction: the festival lists a category for each, and the film may be about AI rather than made with it.

    Choose one human cost: a person, a room, a decision. The robot uprising is what every judge expects.

  • 03

    Hybrid and live action

    Live action and hybrid shorts, documentaries and features compete in their own categories, some marked by the festival as Academy Award recognised.

    If you shot real footage, say so. A hybrid film is judged as a film. Tell the room which shots are generated before someone asks.

  • 04

    Vertical and series

    Vertical and horizontal films are accepted. There are vertical short and vertical series categories, and a web or TV pilot category. A sister festival, the AI International Micro-Drama Festival, focuses on serial content.

    A vertical pilot with a hook every twenty seconds fits the sister festival too. Read both rule sets before you pay twice.

The 12 September winners

What five films teach.

Five winning films from five countries, picked from more than 100 submissions in one afternoon. The festival's own notes on each film give the details below.

  1. 01

    Crownless & Bound cost about $900, its director said from the floor. Taylor Matter modelled one building in Blender, textured it in Substance 3D Painter, then filmed inside it with Seedance and Runway. It won Best Short Director and Best Story: a single set is a strength.

  2. 02

    Yuki, 18 minutes, won Best AI Short and two audience awards. Its structure is one idea held for the whole film. Length is no handicap when the structure is clear.

  3. 03

    Cracked Chimes split the work in the open: generative imagery and voices, an original score by composer Gregory Sharpen. It took Best Horror and Best International Short. Mixing AI and human craft is welcome when you say so.

  4. 04

    Nuance runs two minutes and won Best Art Direction. One strong design idea, fully executed, is enough to place.

  5. 05

    Still, three minutes, won Best Experimental. Four of the five winners were world premieres, and the rules prefer films not yet shown in public: keep yours off YouTube until you are selected.

The scene, shot by shot

Voidborn: the ruins, in six shots.

From Voidborn, episode 0, made by the ScreenWeaver team with Seedance: the swordsman, the seer and the automatons in the ruins of the first level. Read the screenplay page, then watch each storyboard frame become its final image. Under blind judging, a scene has to land with no name attached to it.

Logline. Every seven years, the Rift opens and swallows the world’s dreams. A swordsman sworn to a blind seer escorts her through its levels, toward a promise they made to a girl left behind.

Screenplay · episode 0 · English subtitles

EXT. RUINS OF THE FIRST LEVEL - NIGHT

Broken towers under a violet sky. SIM, a swordsman in a black cloak, walks beside LADY MARIA, blindfolded, all in white.

SIM

Tell me, Maria... do you think Leia believes we are still alive?

MARIA

We made a promise... the two of us.

A line of white automatons rises from the ruins.

AUTOMATON

The Rift will wait for no one.

SIM

What are machines doing at this level?

One automaton steps forward. Its face is blank.

AUTOMATON

We must return to the surface.

Its eyes ignite red.

SIM

I am Sim, guardian of Lady Maria... and I will proceed with your execution.

Steel meets steel. Lightning runs down the blade.

CUT TO:

  1. A swordsman in a black cloak and a blindfolded woman in white walk through ruins at night
    Storyboard frame of the wide shot, in grey
    01

    Wide · the pair

    Wide shot, a bald swordsman in a black cloak and a blindfolded red-haired woman in white walk through night ruins

  2. Medium two-shot of a bald swordsman and a blindfolded red-haired woman
    Storyboard frame of the two-shot, in grey
    02

    Two-shot · the promise

    Medium two-shot, the swordsman and the blindfolded seer side by side, violet night sky, broken towers

  3. Three white humanoid automatons stand in night ruins
    Storyboard frame of the automatons shot, in grey
    03

    Wide · the machines

    Wide low angle, three white humanoid automatons standing in the ruins, cold blue moonlight

  4. Close-up of a white automaton with a smooth blank face
    Storyboard frame of the blank face close-up, in grey
    04

    Close-up · the blank face

    Close-up on an automaton's smooth faceless head, black eye slots, cables at the neck, ruins behind

  5. A white automaton's eyes glow red
    Storyboard frame of the red eyes close-up, in grey
    05

    Close-up · the red eyes

    Same framing, the automaton's eyes ignite red, the swordsman's shoulder out of focus in the foreground

  6. A swordsman strikes with a katana wreathed in lightning and sparks
    Storyboard frame of the clash shot, in grey
    06

    Action · the clash

    Dynamic low angle, the swordsman strikes with his katana, lightning running along the blade, sparks, cape flying

Voidborn, episode 0 runs 13 minutes, inside the 2 to 18 minute range of the September winners. At the Mondial Chroma Awards it took 1st Place Silver and 2nd Place Dreamina, and the Seoul International AI Film Festival gave it an award. The player starts at the ruins, roughly 7 minutes in.

The script

An 8 minute film that survives a Q&A.

Eight minutes sits well inside the winners' range and leaves the room time to talk after. A page a minute gives about 8 screenplay pages, cut into roughly 90 shots.

  1. 0:00 to 0:45

    The first image

    Judges see it blind. Open on something that explains the film without a title card or a name.

  2. 0:45 to 2:25

    One rule, one person

    Set the world's single rule and the person who will break it.

  3. 2:25 to 5:10

    The pressure

    Raise the cost every scene. This is where weak films show their seams.

  4. 5:10 to 6:55

    The decision

    The character chooses. The audience award is usually won here.

  5. 6:55 to 8:00

    The aftermath

    A last image that changes what the first one meant.

Prepare a 60 second answer to “how did you make it?” Winners were asked about tools, budget and authorship from the floor. A project file that logs every shot turns that answer into a lookup.

Week by week

Six weeks to the next round.

Rounds are monthly, so you can aim at the one that fits. This plan assumes six weeks from today. The first two weeks decide how the last four feel.
  1. 01

    Week 1

    Pick your door and categories

    Choose one of the four doors. Then pick two or three categories: the festival says most entrants choose between two and four.

  2. 02

    Week 2

    Write eight pages

    Write the screenplay in ScreenWeaver, in industry format and at no cost. Read it aloud with a stopwatch and cut anything that does not move the story.

  3. 03

    Week 3

    Lock the look

    Fix one reference for each character and each set, once. Fewer locations means fewer mismatches, as Crownless & Bound showed.

  4. 04

    Weeks 4 and 5

    Storyboard and generate

    Break each scene into shots, adjust framing and duration, then generate scene by scene. Keep every prompt and version for the Q&A.

  5. 05

    Week 5

    Sound and subtitles

    Mix dialogue, music and effects. If the film is not in English, add English subtitles. Export at 1080p, well above the 720p floor.

  6. 06

    Week 6

    Submit and prepare the answer

    Enter on FilmFreeway with your synopsis and still images. Write your 60 second pipeline answer now, before you are on stage.

Rejection traps

Seven ways to be refused.

Most of them sit in the festival's listing on Festhome, not on its home page. Read the rules before you cut the film.

  • Politics

    Works involving politics or promoting a political agenda are not accepted, and the festival takes no content from religious or political organisations. A film about regulation can show the human cost without campaigning.

  • A weak technical standard

    Bad sound, missing subtitles on a non-English film or video below 720p HD count as poor production and are refused.

  • No English

    Anything not spoken in English needs English subtitles. Scripts must also be in English, or come with an accurate translation.

  • Unlicensed material

    You must own or have permission for every piece of music, image and clip. The festival can ask for proof of rights.

  • Counting on your category

    The festival may award a film in a different category than the one you chose. Judges' decisions are final, and non-selected films get no feedback.

  • Expecting a fee or travel

    The festival pays no screening fee. Selected filmmakers get two festival passes per film, and cover their own travel and lodging.

  • Not reading the streaming terms

    Selected films may stream privately on Eventive for 72 hours, up to 500 viewers. A public on-demand block needs your written authorisation. Check both against any distribution deal.

Why ScreenWeaver

A blind jury sees the film. ScreenWeaver puts the work there.

ScreenWeaver is where a film is built before it is generated: screenplay, storyboard and footage in one connected project. Your time goes to structure and consistency, the two things a blind jury can see.

  • No imposed tool

    The festival names no required model. A September winner mixed Seedance and Runway with Blender and audio tools. On the ScreenWeaver side, the footage pipelines use Seedance 2.0 and 2.5.

  • One look across eight minutes

    References for characters and locations follow you from shot to shot. Judges who see only the film notice a face that changes or a set that drifts.

  • The Q&A answer is in the file

    Every shot links back to its scene, its storyboard frame and its prompt. When the host asks how it was made, you read the answer off the project.

  • A free first step

    Writing costs $0 and never expires. The storyboard step is $9.99 a month during the beta, and shot-by-shot video generation arrives with the Filmmaker plan.

Real productions

International festival-recognized films have been written and produced with ScreenWeaver.

ScreenWeaver is already being used as a creative workspace for real AI film productions, from cinematic shorts to animated series pilots selected, nominated, and awarded by international festivals.

  • Video thumbnail for VOIDBORN

    VOIDBORN

    AI animated / cinematic short

    Festival recognition

    • 1st Place Silver

      Mondial Chroma Awards

    • 2nd Place Dreamina

      Mondial Chroma Awards

    • Award Winner

      Seoul International AI Film Festival

  • Video thumbnail for Les Fils du Vinnana

    Les Fils du Vinnana

    AI short film

    Festival recognition

    • Honorable Mention

      Top Quark Film Festival

    • People's Choice Nominee

      Illuminate Oneness of Humanity

    • Nominee

      ALTFF Supershort

  • Video thumbnail for Lost Garden

    Lost Garden

    AI animated series pilot

    Festival recognition

    • Finalist

      AI London Festival

See what creators are building

The pipeline

Write. Board. Produce.

  1. ScreenWeaver screenplay editor: acts, sequences and beats above the formatted script of The Yellow Umbrella

    01The screenplay, enriched

    An industry-standard screenplay editor, and more: a visual outline and beat editor, your writing inspirations (notes, photos, audio) kept next to the page, and an AI researcher to support your writing, not replace it.

  2. ScreenWeaver storyboard: shot S3 of The Yellow Umbrella with characters, shot settings and the script beside it

    02The storyboard, made easy

    Shot breakdown generated from your screenplay, manual control over every shot (frame, angle, movement, duration), and generative AI previsualization in one click.

  3. ScreenWeaver production canvas: shots S3 and S4 as connected nodes carrying their storyboard panels and prompts

    03AI production, with finesse

    Footage generation pipelines connected to your screenplay and storyboard. Optimized out of the box, fully editable workflow.

More festivals to enter

Other festival guides

Go further

Read next

FAQ

The AI International Film Festival, your questions

How do you win the AI International Film Festival?
The jury judges blind and sees only the film. A jury and the audience give awards the same afternoon, and the festival publishes no scoring grid. Write one clear story, keep one look, and be ready to explain your process live. The 12 September winners ran from 2 to 18 minutes.
When is the next round?
There is no single deadline: rounds are monthly. The 30 September early bird for the 12 December screening has passed, and Vol. 27 takes place on 18 October 2026. Check FilmFreeway for the round that is open today.
How long can the film be?
The official site states no limit. The festival's Festhome listing describes shorts as under 40 minutes and also accepts features. The latest winners ranged from 2 to 18 minutes.
Must the whole film be AI-generated?
No. It must use AI tools heavily or explore the consequences of AI. Hybrid and live-action categories exist, and the director of Cracked Chimes paired generative images and voices with a composed score.
Can I use Seedance, Runway or any other tool?
No tool is imposed. Crownless & Bound, a 12 September winner, used Seedance and Runway with Blender, Substance 3D Painter, AudioStack, Suno and ElevenLabs.
What does an entry cost?
The official site prints no fee. The festival's Festhome listing showed $39 to $49 for an AI short film in its last visible round, more for features and less for students. Fees are non-refundable.
Is there prize money?
None is listed. Winners receive a certificate and laurels, can buy a trophy for $100 plus shipping, and are eligible to join the Winners Guild. Some categories may have co-sponsors with their own prizes.
Does it accept vertical films and micro-dramas?
Vertical and horizontal films are accepted, with vertical short and vertical series categories. For serial micro-dramas, the sister AI International Micro-Drama Festival is the dedicated home.

Pick a round. Start with the page.

Begin with eight free pages. The storyboard and the footage follow.
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