AI Film Contests Closing in December 2026: All 12 Deadlines, Week by Week

AKOOL's AI Film Challenge pays a $50,000 Grand Prize (December 20), Showrunner's Gossip Goblin competition pays $15,000 for Best Film out of a $20,000 pool (December 15), and the Artefact AI Film Festival in Paris pays a €10,000 Grand Prize with no entry fee (December 2). Four of the twelve are free to enter. The rest range from €12 at Beijing's AI Artist Festival to $55 for a short at WAICF in Jaipur. This page lists every December deadline in our database by week, with the fee, the runtime cap and the rule most likely to get your film rejected. We checked each one against its official page or FilmFreeway listing on October 17, 2026.

The December short list

If you have one finished short, start with the three free contests that pay cash. Artefact is free, accepts one film per person up to 314 seconds, and adds a week of screenings in every mk2 cinema in France for the Grand Prize winner, per artefact-ai-film-festival.com. AKOOL charges no entry fee on its official page and pays $50,000, $25,000 and $15,000 to its top three, plus $2,500 to each of ten finalists. Showrunner's competition publishes no fee and pays $15,000 for Best Film, but your film has to be made inside Showrunner Studio.

If you want a festival screening rather than a prize check, the Berlin AI Film Festival ($40 on its extended tier, December 31) and AI Slop in the Toronto area (December 16) both screen selected films in a cinema in early 2027. Berlin is the safer pick for a first-time entrant: its first edition drew reviews on FilmFreeway praising how quickly the organizers responded.

Week 1: December 2 to 6

Artefact AI Film Festival, 3rd edition, Paris. Submissions close December 2. The theme is (Dis)Connection, and the jury is chaired by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the directors of The Intouchables. The official site lists four cash awards: the €10,000 Grand Prize, plus €1,000 each for the Jury Award, the Audience Award and the award for the most innovative use of AI. The rule that trips people up: you must use at least one generative AI tool in each of pre-production, production and post-production, so a film that only used Runway or Kling for the shots, with no AI in writing or finishing, does not qualify. The audience vote runs December 9, 2026 to January 13, 2027, and the ceremony is at mk2 Bibliothèque in February 2027. Our full Artefact guide covers last year's winners.

World AI Cinema & Creativity Festival (WAICF), Jaipur. The extended deadline is December 5, per FilmFreeway, with notifications on December 21 and the festival January 8 to 12, 2027 at the Rajasthan International Centre. Our database lists the extended-tier fee at $55 for a short and $100 for a feature. Its FilmFreeway page promises cash prizes of up to ₹25,00,000, but only "depending on sponsorship support and funding availability," so treat that number as a ceiling, not a promise. Runtimes from 1 to 180 minutes are accepted across 15 categories, including AI Micro Film, AI Character Creation and an AI Film Student Award. Every entry needs a statement of the AI tools used and the human contribution.

The Jaipur International Film Festival's own World AI Cinema Competition runs in the same January week and also has a December 5 final deadline. JIFF publishes nomination lists on November 5, December 5 and December 21, and its entry form says it pays no screening fees.

AI Artist Festival, 6th season, Beijing. The final deadline is December 5 and every section costs €12, per its Festhome page. Screenings are December 26 and 27 at the UCCA venue in Beijing's 798 art district, with notifications on December 27. There are four sections: fully AI-generated films, AI combined with live action or animation, AI VJ and music, and AI advertisements. The festival lists PixVerse among its supporters. Awards cover Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Visual Effects and Best Music & VJ, with no cash amounts published.

Week 2: December 15 and 16

Gossip Goblin x Showrunner Competition (online). Submissions close December 15, 2026. You make a 2 to 20 minute film in Showrunner Studio set in the Gossip Goblin universe, and every story has to start with a client sitting down in a Ripper Doc's chair. Prizes are $15,000 for Best Film, $2,000 for People's Choice and $1,000 each for Best Screenplay, Best Visuals and Best Performance. Two rules disqualify people: the film must carry the official competition watermark, and you cannot post it on social media before you submit, per showrunnerstudio.com.

Florence AI Festival, 1st edition. The extended deadline is December 15, per FilmFreeway, and the event date there is January 15, 2027 at Palazzo San Niccolò. The organizer is VIA, the group behind the Rome AI Festival. Eight categories cover Horror, Animation, Documentary, Narrative, Comedy, Music Video, Commercial and a worldbuilding category called New World. Runtime caps at 20 minutes including credits, entrants must be 18 or older, and every entry needs a 100 to 300 word AI Statement in the submission notes or it "may be disqualified without refund." One warning: the rules text on the listing still gives November 2026 notification and winner dates, which conflict with the January 15 event date, so confirm the timeline with the festival before you pay.

AI Slop Film Festival, Season 2, Markham, Ontario. December 16 is the Final Curtain deadline, notifications go out December 23, and the screening is January 23, 2027 at Rumiversal Studio. This is the loosest festival of the month: no runtime limit, films completed in 2023 or later, and it openly welcomes polished films, meme edits and "beautiful failures" alike. Nine awards include Best AI Film, Slop of the Year and an Audience Signal Award voted at the screening. You must briefly describe how AI was used, and non-English films need English subtitles.

Week 3: December 20

AKOOL AI Film Challenge (online). The deadline on akool.com/aifilmchallenge is December 20, 2026; AKOOL's own launch blog post still says November 20, so we go with the official challenge page. There are three categories: Coming Never (a 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). You can use Sora, Veo, Kling or anything else, but AKOOL has to play a meaningful role in the finished film, and you explain how when you submit. You also publish the film tagging @AKOOL with #AKOOLFilmChallenge. The headline "$500,000 in Creator Rewards" includes a $100 reward per qualified entry, but only for qualifying Premium AKOOL accounts. Winners are announced January 15, 2027.

LAAIMPA, Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards. LAAIMPA runs monthly: submit by the 20th, nominees are posted on the 28th and winners on the last day of the month, so December 20 is the cutoff for the December cycle. The site now charges a $10 participation fee per entry, through its own form or FilmFreeway. Films can run up to 30 minutes, trailers and scenes up to five, and you can enter two works per cycle. Winners get digital laurels, certificates and a spotlight on LAAIMPA's site and social channels. There is no cash prize.

Week 4: December 30 and 31

MetaMorph x TapNow, Winter activation (online, London-based). Free entry, closing December 30, with the winner announced January 15, 2027. The seasonal winner gets £500 in cash plus 20,000 TapNow credits, and the runner-up gets 10,000 credits. Finalists advance to the MetaMorph AI Award 2027. The catch: at least 50% of the film must be generated in TapNow on a public canvas, so judges can see your workflow.

Berlin AI Film Festival, 2nd edition. The extended deadline is December 31, notifications follow January 31, and the festival runs February 16 and 17, 2027 at Z-Cinema in Berlin. Categories are Full AI Film, Mixed AI Film and Feature AI Film, open to any length, as long as the film was completed after January 1, 2024. The prize is services rather than cash: Best Film winners get festival strategy counseling from NewBorn Short Film Agency, valued at $1,500, and a 12-month iPitch.tv subscription. You keep full copyright.

WAIFF Africa, Abidjan. Submissions close December 31 at 11:59 PM Abidjan time. Entry is limited to creators from, or legally living in, ten countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Chad and Togo. The jury picks five films for the WAIFF Cannes 2027 Road to Cannes Selection, per worldaifilmfestival.com. No cash prize is published.

Which December contests are free

Four December deadlines are free on their official pages: Artefact, AKOOL, Showrunner and MetaMorph x TapNow. Three of those four are run by AI tool companies and require you to use their tool, so Artefact is the only free December contest with no tool requirement. If you have no budget at all, that is the order to work in: Artefact first, then whichever tool contest matches software you already use. Our free AI film contests page tracks every no-fee call into 2027.

The rules that will disqualify you

Tool requirements come first this month. Showrunner requires its own studio, MetaMorph requires 50% TapNow generation on a public canvas, and AKOOL requires meaningful AKOOL use. You cannot recut a Runway or Hailuo short and enter it in any of the three.

Runtime is second. Artefact caps at 314 seconds, which is 5:14, Florence at 20 minutes including credits, Showrunner at 2 to 20 minutes and LAAIMPA at 30. AI Slop and Berlin have no hard cap.

Disclosure is third. Florence wants a 100 to 300 word AI Statement, WAICF wants a tool list and human contribution statement, AI Slop wants a short description, and Artefact requires AI at all three production stages. Keep a log of tools, versions and settings per shot, whether that is Midjourney stills, Veo or Kling video, ElevenLabs voices or Suno music, while you work.

Fourth is posting. Showrunner bans social posts before you submit, while AKOOL requires a public post as part of entry. Read each set of rules before you upload anything publicly.

What else to watch in December

Chroma Awards Season 2 opens October 19 and closes January 7, 2027, so a film finished in December can still go there. Curious Refuge has run a holiday competition with Epidemic Sound in past years, but as of October 17 we cannot find an official 2026 edition, so it is not on this list. The Runway Hundred Film Fund is listed as rolling, but its current terms could not be confirmed on runway.com.

How to plan a December run with one film

Start with a film under 5:14 that used AI in writing, production and finishing. That one cut fits Artefact (free, €10,000), Florence, AI Slop, Berlin, WAICF and the AI Artist Festival, which is six entries. Only WAICF ($55), Berlin ($40) and AI Artist (€12) publish their December fees outside the FilmFreeway form, so check Florence and AI Slop before you budget. Enter Artefact, WAICF and AI Artist by December 5, Florence and AI Slop by December 15 and 16, and Berlin by December 31. If you also want a shot at the tool-company money, plan a second, shorter piece in AKOOL or Showrunner rather than forcing your festival film to fit their rules.

Deadlines move, and FilmFreeway tiers change without notice. Every contest above links to its live listing in our directory, which we recheck daily, and the email alert below sends you new contests as we add them. For the months either side, see our November deadlines page and our 2027 festival calendar.