Higgsfield contests · Guide

How to win a Higgsfield contest.Four contests, $1.685M in prizes in 2026.

Higgsfield runs short contests with big prizes: $500,000 for an action scene, $1,000,000 for a film. Calls last three to five weeks, so the winners are the ones who had a story ready before the call. Here is what each contest asked, how it was judged, and how to prepare the next one in ScreenWeaver.
Start writing for freeSee the scene
  • Calls of 3 to 5 weeks
  • Generation on Higgsfield required
  • Published judging grids
Voidborn · Episode 0

Independent guide by the ScreenWeaver team. ScreenWeaver does not organise these contests and is not affiliated with Higgsfield AI. Rules read on 28 October 2026. Official contests page

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, and the option to run video nodes on your own Higgsfield credits.

The pattern on one card

What every Higgsfield contest has in common.

Higgsfield lists four contests on its contests page. The briefs change, but the rules repeat. This card sums up what they share.
Organiser
Higgsfield AI, sometimes with a partner (Adweek for the Adathon)
Contests in 2026
Make Your Action Scene, Apps Contest, Adathon, Global Film Festival
Total prizes
$1,685,000 in cash and credits across the four
Length of a call
About 3 to 5 weeks
Where you generate
On Higgsfield: the video contests require Higgsfield-generated footage
Proof
Higgsfield watermark, and a public post on social media
Entry fee
Free (Make Your Action Scene: up to 10 entries)
Next call
Not announced on 28 October 2026

Sources: higgsfield.ai/contests and each contest’s rules tab, plus the Higgsfield blog post on the Global Film Festival, read on 28 October 2026. The Apps Contest rules tab could not be read: only its prizes and winners are quoted.

The 2026 calendar

A new contest every few months.

Read this as a rhythm, not a schedule. Each call opened with little warning and closed a few weeks later.

  1. 9 Feb to 1 Mar 2026

    Make Your Action Scene

    Three weeks, $500,000, and more than 8,752 projects submitted.

  2. 27 Jul to 24 Aug 2026

    The Adathon, with Adweek

    Four weeks for professional teams to make a 30 to 60 second ad for a real brand.

  3. 10 Aug to 15 Sep 2026

    Higgsfield Global Film Festival

    Five weeks for a film of at least three minutes, for a $1,000,000 pool.

  4. 15 to 17 Sep 2026

    Adathon winners at Brandweek

    Revealed in Atlanta. First place went to AI-R Studio from Mexico City.

  5. Late Oct 2026

    Global Film Festival winners

    Voting is closed and the jury is reviewing. Winners, including Audience Choice, are due in the last week of October.

How entries are scored

The Action Scene grid: engagement counts.

Make Your Action Scene published a weighted grid. 30 % of the score came from views and likes, on Higgsfield and on social media. The film festival used four unweighted criteria instead: directing and storytelling, visual craft, sound and editing, originality.

  • Cinematic quality

    25%

    Framing, light, camera movement. An action scene lives on readable geography: the viewer must always know who is where.

  • Storytelling and creativity

    25%

    “Build a world, pick your hero, raise the stakes.” A scene with a want, an obstacle and a cost beats a montage of explosions.

  • Technical execution

    20%

    How well the AI tools were used: stable faces, coherent motion, no morphing hands. Continuity breaks cost here.

  • Platform engagement

    15%

    Views, likes and clones in the contest gallery. A strong thumbnail and a clear title are part of the work.

  • Social media engagement

    15%

    Your public post, with the #HiggsfieldAction hashtag and a link to Higgsfield. Post early in the window: views need time.

The Adathon used four criteria at 25 % each: creative idea, brand storytelling and effectiveness against your own brief, cinematic craft, and realism, consistency and VFX. Each contest has its own grid: read it the day the call opens.

Who decides

From an internal panel to an Oscar winner.

The jury depends on the contest. Here is who decided in 2026.

  • Global Film Festival

    An independent jury of Edwin Catmull, Phedon Papamichael and Paul W.S. Anderson, with the Higgsfield creative team reviewing the shortlist. Craft is judged by people who have made films for decades.

  • Make Your Action Scene

    An internal Higgsfield jury panel, with final decisions. Combined with the engagement weight, the community’s reaction is part of the verdict.

  • The Adathon

    A panel picked 10 to 20 finalists against the four criteria, then winners were revealed at Brandweek. Your own brief was part of the score.

The four contests

What each one asked.

Four different briefs, one rule: everything generated must come from Higgsfield. Under each, the angle we would take with ScreenWeaver for the next edition.

  • 01

    Higgsfield Global Film Festival ($1,000,000)

    A film of at least three minutes (five recommended), any genre, 16:9 or 21:9. $500,000 for first place, $200,000, $100,000, $100,000 Audience Choice and ten $10,000 mentions. AI-generated music, voice and sound, no real faces or voices as input.

    Three minutes is a real screenplay, about three pages. Write and storyboard it before the call, then spend the five weeks on footage and sound. Our full guide is linked below.

  • 02

    Make Your Action Scene ($500,000)

    One action scene of 15 seconds to 5 minutes, in English. $150,000, $100,000, $50,000 and up to twenty $10,000 mentions. Up to 10 free entries.

    Storyboard the geography first: where the hero is, where the threat is, what changes. An action scene is choreography written down before it is generated.

  • 03

    The Adathon ($85,000 in credits)

    For agency and brand teams: a 30 to 60 second ad for a real brand on your own brief. At least 51 % AI-generated visuals, all made on Higgsfield. One entry per team.

    A 45 second ad is about twelve shots. Write the brief as a one-page screenplay and keep the product identical in every frame: realism and consistency was a quarter of the score.

  • 04

    Higgsfield Apps Contest ($100,000)

    Builders made apps on Higgsfield. $25,000 to CatCut, $15,000 to SKINZ2000, $10,000 to AEROLINE 3.0, and ten $5,000 mentions, Storyboard Builder and Director Idea Board among them.

    Not a filmmaking contest, but it says something: two of the ten mentions were storyboard and pre-production tools. Planning is where creators feel the gap.

What 2026 teaches

Five lessons from four contests.

Make Your Action Scene alone drew more than 8,752 projects in three weeks. With that volume, the work you do before the call decides whether you finish a film or a sketch.

  1. 01

    The window is too short to start from zero. Three weeks for the action scene, five for the film festival. Writing, references and storyboard take two of those weeks if you start on day one.

  2. 02

    Generation must stay on Higgsfield. Every video contest required Higgsfield-generated footage with the watermark. Plan in any tool you like, but generate the contest shots on Higgsfield.

  3. 03

    Sound is not optional. The film festival required AI-generated music, voice and sound design, rights-cleared and uploaded with the project. Write sound into the screenplay.

  4. 04

    Your own face is not allowed. The festival refused real people’s faces or voices as input, the participant’s included. Invent your characters.

  5. 05

    Engagement can be a third of the grade. In the action scene contest, 30 % came from views and likes. Post early, with a clear title and a strong first frame.

From script to screen

Voidborn: an action 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. It is the kind of scene Make Your Action Scene asked for: a hero, a threat, rising stakes.

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. The scene shows what the Higgsfield grids reward: readable geography in every shot, the same swordsman from frame to frame, and sound placed on the cut. Cut down, it would fit the 15 second to 5 minute window. The player starts on this scene.

The script

A 3 minute action scene in five movements.

Three minutes meets the festival minimum and sits inside the action scene window. About 3 screenplay pages and 45 to 60 shots of 3 to 4 seconds.

  1. 0:00 to 0:10

    The threat

    Show what is coming before the hero sees it. One shot, one sound.

  2. 0:10 to 0:30

    The hero and the stakes

    Who we follow and what they protect. One gesture says it, no exposition.

  3. 0:30 to 2:00

    The fight

    Three escalations, each with a new obstacle. Keep left and right consistent so the geography reads.

  4. 2:00 to 2:40

    The cost

    The hero loses something to win. Slow the cutting and let the music carry it.

  5. 2:40 to 3:00

    The last image

    A frame that makes people wish the film was real. Then the Higgsfield packshot if the rules ask for it.

Make Your Action Scene required English. The film festival accepted any language with English subtitles or voice-over. Burn the subtitles into the master so the post reads the same everywhere.

Be ready for the next call

Do the slow work now.

The next contest is not announced. Everything below can be done before it opens, so the call window is spent on footage.
  1. 01

    Now

    Three loglines, one genre

    Action, sci-fi, drama: write three loglines in the genre you do best. Keep the one you can say in a single breath.

  2. 02

    Week 1

    The screenplay

    Three pages in the free Screenwriter plan, in industry format, with sound cues written as action lines.

  3. 03

    Week 2

    Characters and sets

    One reference per character and per set, invented, never a real face. Fix the look here, not in the footage.

  4. 04

    Week 3

    The storyboard

    Generated from the screenplay, shot by shot. Check the geography of every action beat on the frames.

  5. 05

    When the call opens

    Generate on Higgsfield

    Read the brief and the rules, adapt the script, then generate the contest footage on Higgsfield with the watermark, edit, and post publicly in the first half of the window.

Traps to avoid

Seven ways to lose a Higgsfield contest.

All of them come from the 2026 rules. Check each call for changes.

  • Footage made outside Higgsfield

    The film festival required all video and image generation on higgsfield.ai, the Adathon all AI video, image and voice. Footage from another generator breaks the rule.

  • No watermark

    Entries had to carry the Higgsfield watermark, and the festival also asked for the packshot. A clean export can disqualify the film.

  • A private or login-only link

    The festival wanted a public post on Instagram, YouTube, X or Reddit, viewable without logging in. Test it logged out.

  • Real faces and voices

    The festival banned real people’s faces or voices as input, your own included. The action scene banned violence against real individuals.

  • Copyrighted characters

    Copyrighted IP, explicit content, political and religious content were all excluded. A fan film of a franchise is out.

  • Reusing an old film

    The festival asked for films built from scratch in the generation window. Earlier generations can serve as references, not as the film.

  • Posting on the last day

    When views and likes count for 30 %, a film posted on the deadline loses the engagement points it never had time to earn.

Why ScreenWeaver

Higgsfield generates the shots. ScreenWeaver holds the film.

Higgsfield contests require Higgsfield footage, and we say so plainly. What wins is still a story, a storyboard and a consistent cast. ScreenWeaver is where you prepare all of that before the call opens.

  • Your Higgsfield credits, inside the project

    Connect your Higgsfield account and run any video node on your Higgsfield balance. Whether such runs count as contest footage is for Higgsfield to say: for the final cut, follow the rules and generate on higgsfield.ai.

  • A screenplay before the call

    Screenwriting is free, with no time limit. Your three pages are ready the day the brief lands.

  • Geography you can check

    The storyboard is generated from the screenplay, shot by shot, so you see whether an action beat reads before you spend a credit.

  • One cast, every shot

    Characters, locations and references carry across the project. That serves cinematic quality and technical execution at the same time.

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 contests

Guides for other contests

Go further

Guides for Higgsfield creators

FAQ

Higgsfield contests, your questions

How do you win a Higgsfield contest?
Arrive with the story ready. Calls last three to five weeks, so write and storyboard before they open, generate the footage on Higgsfield with the watermark, and post publicly early: in Make Your Action Scene, 30 % of the score was engagement.
Is there a Higgsfield contest open right now?
Not on 28 October 2026. The Global Film Festival closed on 15 September and its winners are due in the last week of October. Higgsfield has not announced the next call.
How much did Higgsfield contests pay?
$1,000,000 for the Global Film Festival, $500,000 for Make Your Action Scene, $100,000 for the Apps Contest and $85,000 in Higgsfield credits for the Adathon.
Do I have to generate everything on Higgsfield?
For the video contests, yes: the rules required Higgsfield-generated footage with the watermark. Editing, grading and mixing could be done elsewhere, and planning tools are not restricted.
Can I use ScreenWeaver for a Higgsfield contest?
Yes, for the screenplay, the characters and the storyboard. ScreenWeaver can also run video nodes on your Higgsfield credits, but generate the contest footage on higgsfield.ai unless Higgsfield confirms otherwise.
Is it free to enter?
Make Your Action Scene was free, with up to 10 entries. The film festival did not require a paid plan. The Adathon’s FAQ asked for a Higgsfield Team, Business, Scale or Enterprise plan.
What is the difference with the Higgsfield Global Film Festival page?
This page covers every Higgsfield contest and how to prepare the next one. Our Higgsfield Global Film Festival guide goes deep on that single event: rules, jury and runtime.

Write the scene before the next call.

Screenplay for free today, storyboard next, then generate on Higgsfield when the contest opens.
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