Free Entry AI Film Contests

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.

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.

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.

SVAIFF Korea 2026

이파크 에이아이 주식회사, 한국AI마케팅연구소

The SVAIFF Korea 2026 invites submissions for AI-generated films and videos, focusing on various categories including narrative, animation, and documentary. The festival aims to connect Korean creators with the international stage, showcasing innovative storytelling through AI. Winners will be awarded in multiple categories, with a total prize pool of 30 million KRW.

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.

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.

Florence AI Festival (FAIF)

VIA - Visual Innovation Awards

First edition of an international AI film competition from VIA - Visual Innovation Awards, the organisers of the Rome AI Festival. Eight categories (Horror, Animation, Documentary, Narrative, Comedy, Music Video, Commercial, Fantasy/Sci-Fi "New World"), 20-minute runtime cap. Late deadline October 15, 2026; extended deadline December 15, 2026. Winners announced live at Palazzo San Niccolo, Florence, on January 15, 2027.

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.

AI Slop Film Festival 2027 (Season 2)

AI Slop Film Festival

Toronto-area festival that treats AI as a creative force in all its moods, welcoming polished AI films, hybrid productions, meme edits and deliberately chaotic experiments alike. Season 2 screens at Rumiversal Studio in Markham on 23 January 2027.

LAAIMPA — Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards

LAAIMPA

Free entry, rolling monthly submissions — and every winner gets flown to Beverly Hills for the year-end ceremony. Submit by the 20th of any month, nominees announced the 28th, winners on the last day. Culminates in an exclusive in-person gala in Beverly Hills at the end of 2026. One of the only major AI film awards with a monthly winners cycle.

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.

NeoCinema AI Film Festival — The Statuette for Algorithmic Art

NeoCinema

A new statuette enters the AI film circuit. NeoCinema awards a custom-fabricated trophy plus dedicated winner profiles across festival channels — three categories cover AI music videos, microshorts under 3 min, and hybrid live-action/AI films. Built for filmmakers who want their algorithmic work taken seriously.

AI Film Awards Las Vegas

AI Film Awards

The AI Film Awards franchise expands to Las Vegas — designed to elevate and celebrate cinematic work created with AI in one of the world's most iconic entertainment destinations. Submissions via FilmFreeway. Positions your AI film in a Vegas-branded awards circuit that already runs in Bali and Cannes.

Artiver AI Art Awards 2026

Artiver (New York)

Winners get a Times Square billboard showcase and a New York physical exhibition — one of the only AI programs with high-visibility public exhibition prizes. Four fields open: Film & Video, Image & Visual Art, Spatial & Architecture, and Interactive Media. Cash prizes and monetization opportunities on the Artiver platform.

Runway Hundred Film Fund

Runway

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

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.

World AI Film Festival — Los Angeles 2026

Institut EuropIA / WAIFF

The US edition of the World AI Film Festival lands in Los Angeles in late March 2027 — and the top 5 films advance straight to the WAIFF Cannes 2027 Grand Finale at the Palais des Festivals. Nine categories (Live Action Short, Feature, Animated, Doc, Vertical, Music Video, Ad, AR/VR/XR, Gaming) means almost any AI film fits. This is your Cannes pipeline.

Expo AI Film Festival Dubai 2027

Expo City Dubai / Dubai Film & TV Commission

Dubai's official government-backed AI film festival, hosted at the Expo City venue. Best AI Short Film category accepting films under 10 minutes built with AI tools across script, image, video, or sound. Earlybird May 14, final deadline January 21, 2027, event March 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.

World Film Festival in Cannes — Remember the Future (Best AI Film 2027)

World Film Festival in Cannes — Remember the Future

The first festival in the world to establish a "Best Artificial Intelligence Film" category — back in 2020. Submissions are accepted year-round; entries received by March 30, 2027 qualify for the prestigious Annual Gala in Cannes at the Pullman Cannes Mandelieu.

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.

UK Film AI Awards 2027

UK Film Network

UK-based AI short film award for films of 10 minutes or under where AI plays a meaningful creative role in fully AI or hybrid productions; ten finalists screen live at London Film School 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.

Sin Cámara — Festival de Cortos IA en Español (2nd Edition)

Aplimedia, S.L.

Second edition of a Spanish-language AI short film festival for creators in Spain and Latin America. Shorts run 30 seconds to 3 minutes, entry is free, and public voting picks the finalists.

NYC Indie Cinema and AI 2027

NYC Indie Cinema and AI

A Brooklyn festival for independent filmmakers who use AI tools anywhere in production, judged as films first and tech demos never.

London AI Independent

London AI Independent (Sirlute Studios, Canary Wharf)

New London festival for independent films where AI contributes meaningfully but does not have to dominate the finished work. Rolling monthly deadlines from October 2, 2026 to June 2, 2027, a first screening and director Q&A at Sirlute Studios on October 4, 2026, and the main event on June 19, 2027. Studio-financed films are not eligible.

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.

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.