Cine Prague AI Film Festival 2026 · Guide

How to enter the Cine Prague AI Film Festival.Five minutes. Nine categories. A $1,000 Grand Prix.

The 2026 edition of Cine Prague is devoted to short films of five minutes at most, AI or traditional. The final deadline is 18 November 2026 and the festival takes place in Prague on 1 December. Here are the rules, the categories and a plan to make the film in ScreenWeaver.
Start writing for freeSee the scene
  • Final deadline 18 November 2026
  • Five minutes maximum
  • $1,000 Grand Prix
Voidborn · Episode 0

Independent guide by the ScreenWeaver team. ScreenWeaver does not organise Cine Prague and is not affiliated with it. Rules read on 28 October 2026. Official listing

Available today in ScreenWeaver: free screenwriting, and a storyboard generated from your screenplay with the Auteur plan, $39.99 a month.

Also available now: video generation of each shot, powered by Seedance, on the same Auteur plan, with 6,000 credits a month.

The rules on one card

What Cine Prague asks.

Cine Prague calls 2026 its Year of Short Films. AI-generated and traditional films compete side by side, and every category has the same five minute ceiling.
Festival
1 December 2026, Prague, Czech Republic
Final deadline
18 November 2026 (extended)
Running time
Five minutes at most, in every category
Categories
Nine, from AI Short Film to Music Video and Documentary
Fee at the last deadline
$24 for most categories, $50 for AI Short Film
Grand Prix
$1,000 in cash, a trophy and promotion
Who can enter
Any country, any age, AI-assisted or traditional
What to send
Online screener, synopsis, director bio, poster, English subtitles

Source: the festival’s Festhome listing, read on 28 October 2026, and FilmFreeway text relayed by search (the FilmFreeway page could not be opened for this guide). One aggregator gives 28 November as the deadline: on Festhome that is the notification date. <b>Check the fee for your category before you pay.</b>

Key dates

Three weeks to the last deadline.

The early, standard and late deadlines have passed. Only the extended deadline is left, and the festival comes two weeks after it.

  1. 28 Oct 2026

    Late deadline

    Passed. From here, entries pay the extended fee.

  2. 18 Nov 2026

    Extended deadline

    The last day to submit. The listing gives no hour: send it a day earlier.

  3. 28 Nov 2026

    Notification

    Selected films and winners are told. A submitted film cannot be withdrawn after this date.

  4. 1 Dec 2026

    The festival

    One day in Prague, with screenings and awards.

Pick the category

Nine categories, four that suit AI work.

Cine Prague also has Traditional Film, Senior Filmmaker (65 and over), Student Film, Commercial and Documentary. These four suit a film made in ScreenWeaver best. Under each, the angle we would take.

  • 01

    AI Short Film

    The category built for AI films, and the only one with a higher fee.

    Five minutes is one scene told well, not a feature in miniature. One character, one place, one turn, and an ending the jury remembers.

  • 02

    Experimental

    Form first: rhythm, texture, an idea about images.

    Pick one rule and keep it for five minutes: a single colour, a single camera move, a single repeated image. A storyboard lets you test the rule before you generate.

  • 03

    Music Video

    A clip for a song, within the same five minutes.

    Most songs fit. Board the chorus first, then build the verses around it, and clear the music rights before you submit.

  • 04

    Trailer, Teaser or Promo

    A trailer for a film, real or imagined.

    Write the outline of the whole film, then storyboard only the moments a trailer would show. Ninety seconds is enough.

From script to screen

Voidborn: one scene, six shots.

A scene from Voidborn, episode 0, an anime short made by the ScreenWeaver team: the ruins of the first level, about seven minutes in. Cut to five minutes around a scene like this, it would fit Cine Prague’s AI Short Film category.

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, 13 minutes, by the ScreenWeaver team. It won 1st Place Silver and 2nd Place Dreamina at the Mondial Chroma Awards, and is an award winner at the Seoul International AI Film Festival. At 13 minutes it is far over Cine Prague’s limit: the lesson is how much one scene can carry when the same swordsman holds from shot to shot. The player starts on this scene.

The script

A four minute AI short in four movements.

Aim under the ceiling, at about four minutes: four screenplay pages and 50 to 60 shots of 4 to 5 seconds.

  1. 0:00 to 0:24

    The hook

    One image that raises a question. The jury watches many films on the day.

  2. 0:24 to 1:36

    The want

    Who we follow, what they want, and the rule of the world they live in.

  3. 1:36 to 3:12

    The pressure

    The obstacle arrives and the cutting tightens. Give one beat to sound alone.

  4. 3:12 to 4:00

    The turn

    A choice and its cost, then a last image that answers the first.

Credits count toward the five minutes on most festivals. Keep them under ten seconds and check the total running time before you upload.

Plan to the deadline

Three weeks to 18 November.

From 29 October. A five minute film fits in three weeks if the screenplay is short and settled in the first days.
  1. 01

    29 Oct to 4 Nov

    Category and screenplay

    Pick the category, write five loglines, keep one, and write four pages in the free Screenwriter plan, in industry format.

  2. 02

    5 to 10 Nov

    References and storyboard

    One reference per character and per place, then the storyboard generated from the screenplay. Fix the look now.

  3. 03

    11 to 15 Nov

    Footage and edit

    Generate each shot with Seedance in ScreenWeaver from the storyboard, then cut, mix and add English subtitles if there is dialogue.

  4. 04

    16 and 17 Nov

    Package and submit

    Prepare the screener, synopsis, director bio and poster, check the running time, and submit a day before the deadline.

Traps to avoid

Five ways to lose before the screening.

They come from the festival’s listing. Read the full rules on Festhome or FilmFreeway before you pay.

  • A film over five minutes

    The ceiling is five minutes in every category, credits included unless the rules say otherwise. A 5:20 film is out.

  • The wrong category

    AI Short Film costs more at the last deadline. The festival can move a film to another category, but pick the one that matches the film.

  • A missing poster or bio

    The listing asks for an online screener, a synopsis, a director bio and a poster. An incomplete entry is easy to set aside.

  • No English subtitles

    Dialogue not in English needs English subtitles.

  • Rights you do not hold

    You must own or control every element, music included. The festival can use excerpts for promotion, so clear the rights before you submit.

Why ScreenWeaver

Five minutes is a page count. Plan it.

A five minute ceiling rewards films that were planned to length. ScreenWeaver puts the screenplay, the storyboard and the footage in one project, so you know the running time before you generate.

  • A screenplay to length

    Four pages, written for free in industry format. Screenwriting has no time limit and no credit cost.

  • A storyboard that counts the shots

    Generated from the screenplay, shot by shot, so you see the running time and the look before the footage.

  • Footage with Seedance

    Generate each shot in the same project, with characters and places that stay consistent. Declare your tools honestly if asked.

  • One price

    Storyboard and video generation for each shot come with the Auteur plan at $39.99 a month.

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 animated shorts to short films 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

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 AI film festivals

Guides for other festivals

Go further

Guides for festival films

FAQ

Cine Prague AI Film Festival, your questions

What is the Cine Prague AI Film Festival?
An international short film festival in Prague. Its 2026 edition is devoted to films of five minutes at most, AI-generated or traditional, and takes place on 1 December 2026.
What is the deadline?
The extended deadline, the last one, is 18 November 2026. Notifications are sent on 28 November.
How much does it cost to enter?
At the extended deadline, $24 for most categories and $50 for AI Short Film, according to the Festhome listing. Discounts are shown there for some accounts.
What are the prizes?
A $1,000 Grand Prix in cash, trophies made of natural stone, certificates and promotion for category winners, and laurels for official selections.
Do I have to disclose my use of AI?
Disclosure is encouraged and, according to the listing, does not affect judging. The festival may ask how the film was made.
Can a traditional film enter?
Yes. AI and traditional films are both accepted, and there is a Traditional Film category for analog and practical effects work.
Can I make the film with ScreenWeaver and Seedance?
Yes. The festival accepts films made partly or entirely with AI. Write and storyboard in ScreenWeaver, generate the shots with Seedance, and keep the cut under five minutes.

Three weeks to 18 November. Start with the page.

Write a four page screenplay for free today, storyboard it, then film it with Seedance in the same project.
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