Dreamina Spooktacular Film Contest · Guide

How to win the Dreamina Spooktacular Film Contest.One twist. Three winners. 350,000 credits each.

The rules, the five-line rubric, the three moods the brief allows and a plan to the 20 October 2026 deadline. Write and storyboard the film in ScreenWeaver, then generate it in Dreamina, as the rules require.
Start writing for freeSee the scene
  • Deadline 20 October 2026
  • Made with Dreamina AI
  • Free to enter
Voidborn · Episode 0

Independent guide. ScreenWeaver does not organise the Dreamina Spooktacular Film Contest and is not affiliated with Dreamina. Rules read on 1 October 2026. Official rules

Available today in ScreenWeaver: free screenwriting, and a storyboard built from your screenplay with Storyboard Beta, $9.99 a month. Both work before you ever open Dreamina.

Rolling out: video generation of each shot, powered by Seedance, with the Filmmaker plan. It will not replace Dreamina here, because this contest asks for entries made with Dreamina AI.

Contest rules at a glance

What the contest asks for.

Dreamina runs this contest to show what Seedance (video) and Seedream (image) can do. Entry is free, the prize is credits instead of cash, and the scoring rubric is published.
Top 3 prize
350,000 Dreamina credits each
Honorable mentions
10 winners, 100,000 credits each
Deadline
20 October 2026
Tool
Dreamina AI: Seedance and Seedream
Length and format
Not published on the page
Theme
Any genre, with a clever twist
Who can enter
Individuals, 18 and over, worldwide
How to submit
Dreamina website event banner

Source: the contest page on dreamina.capcut.com and its official rules, read on 1 October 2026. The page gives two end dates for the winner announcement (29 October in the rules text, 6 November in the dates block): check it again before you submit.

Key dates

Nineteen days left, and one date to trust.

The page counts everything in Pacific time. Read its dates as the organiser wrote them, and finish a day early.

  1. 15 Sep 2026

    Contest opens

    The submission period starts. The page shows a countdown to the deadline.

  2. 20 Oct 2026

    Deadline

    The final count is recorded at midnight Pacific time, while the page’s countdown ends at 08:59 on 20 October in its display time. Treat 19 October as your real deadline.

  3. 21 Oct to 3 Nov

    Review and verification

    Dreamina reviews the entries and checks the likely winners. Expect a message on social media and answer fast: a prize can be withheld if you cannot be reached.

  4. 29 Oct 2026

    Virtual Film Festival

    The top winners are shown online, with talks by directors. The rules text says winners are announced publicly by this date.

  5. By 6 Nov 2026

    Winners and credits

    The dates block gives 6 November for the announcement. Credits arrive within two weeks, and processing can take up to 14 business days.

How entries are scored

100 points, five lines.

Dreamina staff review every valid entry and rank it against a published rubric. No public vote, no named jury. When two films tie at a prize boundary, the higher Visual Aesthetics score wins the higher tier.

  • Visual Aesthetics

    25%

    The heaviest line, and the tie-breaker. One palette, one light, one texture from the first shot to the last. Pick an autumn look and keep it: warm orange and fog for the cozy side, cold teal and deep black for the horror side. Lock it with Seedream stills before any video.

  • Audio-Video Language

    20%

    How picture and sound speak together: cuts, camera moves, rhythm, silence. It is scored apart from the image, so a twist is as much cut and sound as story. Decide where the music stops and where the cut lands on the reveal.

  • Character and Scene

    20%

    A character we can name by the second shot, in a place we can map. Two characters and two locations are enough. Keep faces and costumes identical from shot to shot with approved references.

  • Plot and Pacing

    20%

    The twist lives here. The brief wants an audience caught off guard, which means a clue planted early and hidden in plain sight. Build the film backwards from the reveal.

  • Innovation Merit

    15%

    The lowest weight and the vaguest line. It rewards a fresh angle on the season: a familiar autumn object in an unexpected role, or a form only video AI makes easy. Do not chase novelty at the cost of the first four lines, which hold 85 points.

Only your best-ranked entry counts. Dreamina identifies you by your Dreamina UID and keeps the highest ranking among your submissions, so five variations are not five chances.

The three moods

Sweet treat or terrifying trick.

The brief welcomes every genre and names three moods: cozy fall comedy, pumpkin-patch charm and blood-curdling horror. The common thread is the twist. Under each mood, the angle we would take.

  • 01

    Cozy fall comedy

    Sweaters, soup, leaf piles, a neighbour with far too many decorations.

    Comedy lives on timing, a weak point of video models. Write one gag with a clean setup, a delay and a payoff, and let the edit carry the timing.

  • 02

    Pumpkin-patch charm

    Warm light, small hands, a farm at dusk, a harvest fair that goes slightly wrong.

    The gentlest mood and probably the least crowded. A heartwarming twist (the monster is lonely, the ghost wants to help) gives the jury a character to care about.

  • 03

    Blood-curdling horror

    Dread, a creature, a house that is wrong, a sound behind a door.

    The rules welcome horror but can disqualify violent or NSFW content. Imply, do not show: cut away before the blood and let the sound design finish the job.

One scene, page to frame

Voidborn: a scene built on a reveal.

A scene from Voidborn, episode 0, an anime film by the ScreenWeaver team. It turns on one reversal: blank faces, then eyes that ignite red. That is the kind of beat the Plot and Pacing line rewards. First the screenplay page, then every shot twice: as a storyboard frame and as a final image.

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. It won 1st Place Silver and 2nd Place Dreamina at the Mondial Chroma Awards, and an award at the Seoul International AI Film Festival. For this contest the lesson is the pacing: calm walk, wrong note, turn, clash. It is not a Spooktacular entry. Press play to start on this scene.

The script

A 3 minute film built on one turn.

The page sets no length, and the entries shown on it run from about two to four minutes. Aim for 3 minutes: about 3 screenplay pages and 30 to 40 shots of 3 to 6 seconds.

  1. 0:00 to 0:15

    The sweet surface

    A warm, readable opening: place, character, mood. It must look like the film you are about to betray.

  2. 0:15 to 0:45

    The small wrong note

    Plant the clue: an object out of place, a sound that repeats. Most viewers will not catch it yet.

  3. 0:45 to 1:55

    The escalation

    The character follows the clue. Each scene tightens the same thread, in the same look.

  4. 1:55 to 2:35

    The twist

    Reframe the clue. The treat or the trick answers itself. The cut and the sound do the work.

  5. 2:35 to 3:00

    The sting

    One last shot that proves the twist, then your credits and your list of licences.

Dreamina offers a Seedance 2.5 preview before you commit credits. Test the twist shot first: if the reveal does not work in a rough generation, polish will not rescue it.

Day by day

From the blank page to the banner.

Nineteen days from 1 October. Plan to finish on 19 October, so that the last day is a buffer and not a plan. Spend the first three days on the twist, and the rest gets easier.
  1. 01

    1 to 3 Oct

    Find the twist

    Write five twists, one sentence each. Keep the one you can show in a single shot. Tell it to someone: if they see it coming, change it.

  2. 02

    4 to 6 Oct

    Write three pages

    One location, two characters, one clue. Write it free in ScreenWeaver, in industry format, and time it by reading it aloud.

  3. 03

    7 to 9 Oct

    Look, references, storyboard

    Design each character and the main set once, and approve them. Make Seedream stills for them in Dreamina: they are the images the video model will start from. Generate the shot breakdown and the storyboard in ScreenWeaver.

  4. 04

    10 to 15 Oct

    Generate in Dreamina

    Shot by shot from the storyboard, the twist shot first. Keep prompts and versions in a file: handy if Dreamina asks questions during verification.

  5. 05

    16 to 18 Oct

    Edit, sound, licences

    Cut to your length and score it. Keep the licence for any third-party music, stock image or font, because Dreamina can ask for proof.

  6. 06

    19 Oct

    Submit through the banner

    Upload through the Dreamina website event banner, the one required step. Posting on Instagram, TikTok or X with #DreaminaAI and #DreaminaAIContest, tagging @Dreamina_AI, is optional. Keep 20 October for emergencies.

Disqualification traps

Eight ways to be removed.

The list of disqualifications is short and easy to skim. Go through it once with your film open next to it.

  • A film made outside Dreamina

    Entries must be created using Dreamina AI. Footage from another generator, or from ScreenWeaver once video ships, is not what this contest asks for. Plan anywhere, make the film in Dreamina.

  • Skipping the banner

    The upload through the Dreamina website event banner is the required step. A post on Instagram, TikTok or X is optional and does not replace it.

  • Several versions of one film

    Only your highest-ranking entry is considered, and sending materially similar content again breaks the entry policy. Enter your best cut once.

  • Music and assets without a licence

    Royalty-free music, stock images and fonts are allowed only with a valid licence that you can prove on request. Keep the receipts.

  • Violent, hateful or sexual content

    Horror is welcome, but content that is violent, hateful, sexually explicit or against Dreamina’s Community Guidelines can be disqualified. Imply the scare instead of showing it.

  • Someone else’s rights

    You warrant that you hold every right to your film and infringe nobody’s publicity, privacy or IP. No monsters from other studios, no real faces, no existing franchise.

  • Faking the numbers

    Bought views, bots and false identities lead to disqualification, and so does an entry generated or sent by script or macro.

  • Entering as a team

    Groups are not eligible. One person enters, aged 18 or the age of majority where they live. Dreamina staff, contractors and their households cannot take part.

Why ScreenWeaver

Plan in ScreenWeaver, generate in Dreamina.

ScreenWeaver turns a film into one connected project: screenplay, storyboard and footage. For this contest it covers the first two, and the footage is made in Dreamina.

  • An honest split of the work

    Dreamina requires Dreamina AI for the film itself. ScreenWeaver gives you the screenplay and the shot-by-shot storyboard, and you generate each shot in Dreamina. ScreenWeaver footage would not qualify here.

  • A twist is a plan, not a prompt

    Plot and Pacing is 20 points, and the clue has to be planted early. In ScreenWeaver you see the clue in the screenplay, the beats and the storyboard together, and you can move it before you spend a credit.

  • The same model family

    ScreenWeaver’s footage pipelines run on Seedance 2.0 and 2.5, the video family this contest showcases. Your framings, durations and shot descriptions make a ready starting point for your Dreamina prompts.

  • Start for free today

    The free Screenwriter plan has no price and no expiry. Storyboard Beta costs $9.99 a month. Video generation arrives with the Filmmaker plan, now rolling out, and will serve your next contest.

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 AI film festivals

Guides for other festivals

Go further

Guides for twist and horror shorts

FAQ

The Dreamina Spooktacular Film Contest, your questions

How do you win the Dreamina Spooktacular Film Contest?
Dreamina ranks every valid entry on five lines: Visual Aesthetics 25, Audio-Video Language 20, Character and Scene 20, Plot and Pacing 20, Innovation Merit 15. Make one film, in one look, around a clear twist, and generate it in Dreamina. Three winners get 350,000 credits each.
Can I use ScreenWeaver to make the film?
You can write and storyboard it in ScreenWeaver, where the screenplay is free. The film itself must be created with Dreamina AI, so generate the shots there. ScreenWeaver’s own video generation is rolling out and would not meet that rule.
What length does the contest accept?
The page publishes no minimum or maximum, no aspect ratio and no resolution. The entries shown on it run from about two to four minutes. If you plan something much longer or shorter, write to creator@us.dreamina.com first.
Is there an entry fee?
No. The page states that no purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win. You submit from your Dreamina account, since the rules identify entrants by their Dreamina UID.
Who is on the jury?
Dreamina does not name one. Its team reviews all valid entries and ranks them against the rubric. Nothing on the page suggests a public vote.
When are the winners announced?
The rules text says by 29 October 2026, the date of the Virtual Film Festival. The dates block says by 6 November. Credits are added within two weeks of the announcement.
Can I enter more than one film?
You can, but only your highest-ranking entry is considered for awards, and materially similar entries break the policy. One strong film beats three variations.
Do the prizes include money?
No. The prizes are Dreamina credits: 350,000 for each of the top three, 100,000 for each of 10 honorable mentions. US residents are responsible for their own taxes.

Nineteen days. Start with the twist.

Open the free Screenwriter plan today. Storyboard the film, then make it in Dreamina.
Start writing for freeBack to the demo