AI Film Contests with Cash Prizes

AI New York Awards

Cre8ive NYC (Festival Director Iwona Rydz)

An intimate AI-film awards evening in Manhattan spotlighting short narrative, music-video, and commercial work made with generative AI.

WAIFF London 2026 — World AI Film Festival UK

World AI Film Festival (WAIFF) UK edition

The UK edition of the World AI Film Festival, held November 24, 2026 at Bloomsbury Big Top in London. Open to UK-based creators aged 13 and up across eight categories, from live-action shorts and features to vertical micro-series and 3D Worlds. From 11 winners, a jury selects 5 works to advance to the WAIFF Cannes 2027 Grand Finale, and one is named WAIFF London Grand Prix.

AI Film Award 2027

1 Billion Followers Summit

The AI Film Award 2027 invites filmmakers to submit their works that incorporate AI tools. The theme revolves around storytelling that resonates with the audience, and winners will have their films showcased at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai.

Cue Film Fest — Cue Xmas '26

AFRO TV / Cue Film Fest

Your AI Christmas short could air live on national cable TV. Cue Film Fest's inaugural holiday edition broadcasts December 12 on AFRO TV (Comcast Xfinity ch. 1623) and NOW TV, with winners decided live by viewer voting and a jury. Free to enter: submit a 2:00–6:00 AI short film or AI music video with a Christmas theme, built from multiple intentional, edited shots (a single unedited AI-generated clip is not eligible). Four cash awards — Best Film, Best Image, Best Sound and Best AI Music Video — with the Best Film grand prize announced last on the live broadcast.

AI Film Award 2027 — 1 Billion Followers Summit

1 Billion Followers Summit

Make an original 5-7 minute film, at least 70% generated with Seedance, on one of five humanity-focused themes. The Top 5 premiere at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai, where one creator wins $1,000,000.

Cine Prague AI Film Festival 2026

Cine Prague AI Film Festival

International AI short film festival in Prague welcoming AI-generated, AI-assisted and traditional short films up to 5 minutes; finalists screen at Kino Edison with a $1,000 Grand Prix awarded December 1, 2026.

AI ZONE International AI Film Festival 2026

AI ZONE

Global online film festival dedicated exclusively to AI-generated cinema, now in its 2nd edition. Regular deadline 30 November 2026, with the festival on 15 January 2027; a $500 Grand Prize goes to a selected film that agrees to non-exclusive publication on the AI Zone platform.

AI for the Future Festival — COP31 Edition 2026

AI for the Future — curator Lisa Russell

The fourth and final 2026 category of a festival that screens AI work inside United Nations convenings rather than a cinema. This round is aligned to COP31 and wants climate storytelling: resilience, ecological futures, biodiversity and just transitions. Film, photography, music and script all accepted. Deadline Nov 30, awards event Dec 15.

Artefact AI Film Festival — 3rd Edition, "(Dis)Connection"

Artefact and mk2

Third edition of the Paris short film festival for work made with generative AI, run by Artefact with mk2, with Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano as jury presidents. Theme: (Dis)Connection. Films can run up to 314 seconds, one entry per person, and must use at least one Gen AI tool in each of pre-production, production and post-production. Grand prize €10,000 plus a 30-second cut of the winning film screened in all mk2 theaters for one week.

World AI Cinema & Creativity Festival (WAICF) – India

Film Dais / Jaipur International Film Festival Trust

A Jaipur-based global AI film festival from the JIFF/Film Dais ecosystem, accepting AI-generated, AI-assisted and AI-enhanced films across eight competition categories plus separate AI innovation awards.

2026 AI Holiday Film Competition — Curious Refuge x Epidemic Sound

Curious Refuge x Epidemic Sound

The largest prize pool ever for a fully AI-generated holiday short — Epidemic Sound and Curious Refuge return with $7,500+ in cash for winners. Warm, weird, or wildly cinematic — make something people rewatch every December. Deadline December 6.

Turquoise International AI Film Festival (Turkuaz) — Ankara

Turquoise AI Film Festival

Inaugural AI film festival in Ankara, Turkey, screening international and national competition entries across AI film, commercial, and music-video categories. AI use must be visually significant on screen, not just used for scripting or post-production support.

NEXTALE Award

NEXTALE

NEXTALE Award is a free AI short-drama contest: upload a complete 20+ episode AI series to NEXTALE Studio by December 14, 2026, for a share of a $3,000 prize pool, plus 100% of revenue from paid views for the first six months.

Gossip Goblin x Showrunner Competition

Showrunner (Fable)

Make a 2 to 20 minute short film in Showrunner Studio set in the Gossip Goblin universe. Every story starts with a client sitting down in a Ripper Doc's chair.

Gossip Goblin Competition 2026

Showrunner

Every film is set in the Gossip Goblin universe and starts with a client sitting down in a Ripper Doc's chair. Films must be made in Showrunner Studio and carry the official competition watermark.

AKOOL AI Film Challenge

AKOOL

AKOOL's AI Film Challenge has three categories: Coming Never (an original 30 to 90 second trailer for a film that does not exist), AI Short Film, and Impossible (ideas that could not have been made before AI). Other tools are allowed, but AKOOL must be meaningfully used in the final film. Apply via AKOOL's form, publish the film tagging @AKOOL with #AKOOLFilmChallenge, then submit and explain how you used AKOOL.

NEXMUSE AI Music Video Contest 2027

AI Art Co., Ltd. (NEXMUSE)

An international AI music video contest where entrants build an original AI-made song and video around one of 24 AI idol-hopeful characters NEXMUSE provides, with winning tracks getting a professional re-arrangement and an official idol-album debut.

MetaMorph x TapNow — Winter Activation

MetaMorph × TapNow

Second of four free seasonal AI filmmaking competitions leading to the MetaMorph AI Award 2027; at least 50% of each film must be generated with TapNow on a public canvas.

Runway Hundred Film Fund

Runway

Rolling grant fund offering $5K–$1M+ per project plus up to $2M in Runway credits. Decisions within ~14 days.

WAIFF Africa — Abidjan 2027

World AI Film Festival (WAIFF) / Institut EuropIA

Pan-African regional edition of the World AI Film Festival based in Abidjan, open to creators from ten Francophone West/Central African countries; the five jury-selected films advance to the WAIFF Cannes 2027 Road to Cannes Selection.

Global AI Music Video Awards (GAIMVA) 2027

GAIMVA / Festhome

The first international awards festival dedicated exclusively to AI-generated and AI-assisted music videos. Deadline January 1, 2027. Welcomes fully AI-generated, hybrid, experimental, narrative, performance-based, animated, vertical, student-made, and human+AI collaboration works — the widest AI music video category set anywhere.

Chroma Awards — Season 2

Chroma Awards (incubated by ElevenLabs)

Season 2 of the ElevenLabs-incubated AI film and media competition (founded 2023 as Project Odyssey). Submissions opened October 19, 2026 and close January 7, 2027 at 11:45 PM PT. Five divisions (Film, Advertising, Music Video, Games, Behind-the-Scenes) plus Student Awards; $450,000+ in cash and travel perks. Projects made after February 1, 2026 are eligible, unlimited entries, one category per project. Winners announced February 11, 2027; gala April 2027.

Hollywood AI Short Film Awards (HASFA) 2027

Hollywood AI Short Film Awards

Second season of the Hollywood AI Short Film Awards, honouring films that make meaningful creative use of AI across development, production, post, animation, visual design and audio. The 2027 ceremony runs during Super Bowl Weekend at the London West Hollywood Screening Room on 13 February 2027.

LundinStudio AI Film Festival 2027 (Australia's First)

LundinStudio

Australia's first AI film festival — rolling monthly deadlines through January 2027 mean you can submit on your timeline. Win cash back on your submission fee plus pro subscriptions to Saga and Melies. Live screening in Sydney, March 18-19, 2027.

Cannes Film Awards 2027 — New AI Category

Cannes Film Awards

Cannes Film Awards just opened dedicated categories for AI films, VR, games, and 360° video for the very first time. Event date: June 25–27, 2027 on the Riviera. $1K+ cash and $25K+ in promotional/partner awards on the line. If you want a Cannes credit on an AI short, this is the cleanest entry point on the calendar.

AI Cinema Festival Québec City 2027

AI Cinema Festival Network

A bilingual Québec City festival for hybrid human+AI and fully AI-generated films, judged on cinematic craft, story and ethics rather than the tools used.

AI CINEMA — Festival of AI Filmmaking, Montréal 2027

AI Cinema Festival

Montréal joins the AI cinema circuit — one intense day of screenings and awards March 5, 2027. Six award groups celebrate work made with AI as a meaningful creative force: generation, direction, animation, sound, or post. Pure live-action need not apply. Decisions by Feb 15, 2027. Submissions open on FilmFreeway now — deadline Feb 5, 2027.

Milan AI Festival — First Edition

VIA — Visual Innovation Awards

A new AI film and design competition in Milan with eight categories spanning fashion film, design, architecture and narrative shorts, from the team behind the Rome and Florence AI Festivals. Winners screen live in Milan on April 15, 2027.

Twin Rivers AI Film Festival 2027 (1st Annual)

Twin Rivers Media Festival / Flood Gallery

The first AI-dedicated edition of North Carolina's long-running Twin Rivers Media Festival, screening AI-made shorts, animation, documentaries and more live at the Flood Gallery in Asheville.

PROMPT Festival 2027 — Toronto

PROMPT Festival

Toronto's AI-native cinema festival, back after an inaugural 2026 season at the Black Box in Scarborough. It accepts anything where AI touched the pipeline, in any genre, and runs ten rolling deadlines instead of one cliff. Fifteen award categories, including the signature Best Prompt. Final deadline, 'Last Frame', is Apr 16 2027.

Horizons IA 2027 — Punta del Este, Uruguay

Horizons IA

International AI short film festival in Punta del Este, Uruguay, judging fiction/documentary, experimental/music video, and advertising shorts where AI use is central and decisive; free-admission screening event in May 2027.

Seoul International AI Film Festival (SIAFF) 2027 — 6th Edition

Seoul International AI Film Festival

Sixth edition of Seoul's AI film festival, with an awards ceremony, screening and gala on 30 May 2027 at the enTravel Cultural Complex in Gangnam, followed by a director–audience talk on 31 May. Around eighteen award categories cover AI film, music video, animation, screenplay, sound design and visual effects.

MetaMorph AI Film Award 2027

MetaMorph — founders Ruby Griffiths and Stephan Baum

London awards night for films where AI did real work, not decoration: the rules ask for AI in at least 50% of the creative or production process, and hybrid AI plus live action is explicitly welcome. Fifteen categories, including two split by budget so a £900 film is not judged against a £30,000 one. Regular deadline Apr 30 2027, late May 8, extended May 15.

AI Cinema Festival NYC — July 2027

AI Cinema Festival

New York City gets its own AI cinema festival — three days of screenings, conversations and awards July 16–18, 2027. Grand Prix NYC, Best Human + AI Direction, Best AI Cinematography, Responsible AI Cinema Award and Audience Signal Award on the table. Not a prompt contest — a film culture event for directors, editors, actors, writers and technologists who care about story and consent. Deadline: June 20, 2027.

AI Cinema Festival Cannes 2027

AI Cinema Festival

Cannes is opening its doors to human-led AI cinema — and this is your shot at a Grand Prix Cannes trophy. The AI Cinema Festival Cannes runs November 12–14, 2027 in the city that defines global film prestige, with awards for Best Human + AI Direction, Best AI Cinematography, and the Responsible AI Cinema Award. Long runway, real stakes.

MetaMorph x TapNow — Spring Activation

MetaMorph × TapNow

Third of four free seasonal AI filmmaking competitions leading to the MetaMorph AI Award 2027; at least 50% of each film must be generated with TapNow on a public canvas.

Bengaluru International Short Film Festival — AI Film Category (17th Edition)

Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF)

India's only Oscar-qualifying short film festival runs a dedicated "Machine Made Movies" AI Film competition section alongside its International and Indian programs.

MetaMorph x TapNow — Summer Activation

MetaMorph × TapNow

Fourth and final of four free seasonal AI filmmaking competitions leading to the MetaMorph AI Award 2027; at least 50% of each film must be generated with TapNow on a public canvas.