AI Film Festival Deadlines in November and December 2026 (Verified)

The two biggest verified prizes are the €10,000 Grand Prize at the Artefact AI Film Festival, whose submission window ends December 2, and a $20,000 pool in the Gossip Goblin x Showrunner competition, which closes December 15. The Türkiye International AI Film Festival in Istanbul and the AI Creativity Awards both close first, on November 1.

This page reflects deadlines as of September 21, 2026. Every figure with a named source comes from the organizer's own site or its FilmFreeway or Festhome listing. Three November dates come only from our database, and they are marked so you can confirm them before paying an entry fee.

The calendar at a glance

November 1: TAIFF (Istanbul) and the AI Creativity Awards. November 15: the extended tier at the World AI Cinema Competition in Jaipur. November 30: AI ZONE International AI Film Festival, plus three listings we could only partly confirm (Veritas AI Film Festival in Toronto, the AI for the Future Festival's COP31 edition, and the AI New York Awards, which lists November 15). December 2: Artefact AI Film Festival in Paris. December 5: the AI Artist Festival in Beijing and the final tier in Jaipur. December 15: Gossip Goblin x Showrunner. December 16: AI Slop Film Festival, Season 2. December 20: the monthly LAAIMPA cycle.

After December 20 the calendar thins. Berlin AI Film Festival's extended tier runs to January 31, 2027, and four listings in our database (AI Film & Ads Awards India, AI Film Awards Las Vegas, NeoCinema and Artiver AI Art Awards) show December 31 dates that we did not confirm with the organizers. Check their FilmFreeway pages for current tiers.

November 1: Istanbul's TAIFF and the AI Creativity Awards

TAIFF, the Türkiye International AI Film Festival, takes applications from June 25 to November 1, 2026 and holds the festival December 7 to 9 in Istanbul, according to its website. This is the third edition. The first ran in 2024 at Istanbul Gelişim University and the second in 2025 at Marmara University, and the festival says it has drawn more than 2,000 film submissions from over 100 countries. Each participant can submit up to two works, and earlier festival appearances or awards do not disqualify a film. Entries go through FilmFreeway at filmfreeway.com/T-AIFF.

The fee is the one open question. Our database carries two listings for this edition, one marked free and one marked paid, so read the current tier on FilmFreeway before you submit. The awards follow the production stack: our listing shows categories for AI director, cinematographer, editing, sound design, music and visual effects, alongside animation and documentary.

The AI Creativity Awards, an inaugural programme, also closes November 1. Its site lists a £35 standard entry available until November 1, results on December 1, and eight tracks that include Motion & Film and Responsible AI Creativity. Entries are judged on creativity, execution and transparency about how AI was used. Winners receive award titles, badge packs, public profile features and digital certificates. The site lists no cash prize, so weigh the £35 against a laurel and a profile page.

November 15 to 30: Jaipur's extended tier, AI ZONE and three listings to confirm

The Jaipur International Film Festival runs January 8 to 12, 2027 and hosts a World AI Cinema Competition with a ladder of deadlines: early bird August 15 (past), late October 15, extended November 15 and final December 5, 2026. Nomination lists publish November 5, December 5 and December 21. The competition has ten AI awards: Short Film, Feature Film, Documentary, Animation, Experimental, Music Video, Student Film, AI-Assisted (Human + AI), Screenplay and Innovation.

JIFF's site states festival prize money of up to ₹5,000,000 (about $80,000), depending on government support, and gives no separate AI amounts. Submissions go through FilmDais, FilmFreeway, WFCN, Sfilmmaker or Festhome, and the site says FilmDais costs 40% less than FilmFreeway. The page does not publish the fee tiers, so read them on your platform.

AI ZONE International AI Film Festival is in its second edition. Per its FilmFreeway listing it opened June 19, has a regular deadline of November 30, sends notifications on December 15 and holds its event on January 15, 2027. It accepts AI-generated and AI-assisted work in any genre, and the regular tier shows as free.

Three more listings in our database carry November dates that we could only partly confirm. FilmFreeway describes Veritas AI Film Festival as Canada's first festival dedicated to AI filmmaking, with 16 short films screening at Toronto's Carlton Cinema, and our listing shows a November 30 deadline, a $9 fee and a seven-minute cap. The AI for the Future Festival's COP31 edition lists November 30 and asks for climate storytelling, timed to the UN climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye in November 2026 (per UNFCCC). The AI New York Awards lists November 15 for six categories and runtimes from 30 seconds to 25 minutes.

December 2: Artefact, the largest open-tool prize in the window

The Artefact AI Film Festival is run by the consulting firm Artefact with the Paris cinema chain mk2, and its third edition pays a €10,000 Grand Prize plus a 30-second cut of the winning film screened in all mk2 theaters for one week. The Jury Award, Audience Award and AI Innovation Award each pay €1,000. The festival's calendar shows submissions from September 2 to December 2, 2026, an audience vote in January 2027, jury deliberations and the awards ceremony in February 2027 at mk2 Bibliothèque. Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the directors of Intouchables, chair the jury, and the theme is "(Dis)Connection".

The rules page sets three conditions. The festival is open worldwide, a film can run at most 314 seconds, and you must have used at least one generative AI tool in each of the three phases of production: pre-production, production and post-production. Write your tool disclosure around all three phases. A film where AI touched only the picture does not meet the rule as written.

December 5 to 20: Beijing, Showrunner, AI Slop and LAAIMPA

The AI Artist Festival's sixth season closes December 5 on Festhome. Screenings run December 26 and 27 at UCCA in Beijing's 798 art district, and notifications go out December 27. Standard entry is €12, or €11.04 through FesthomePlay and €8.04 for PRO members. Its four sections are AI-generated short and feature films, AI combined with real-shot or animated footage, AI VJ and music, and AI advertisements, with awards for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Visual Effects, Business Market Application and Music & VJ. The festival requires works to be original and not publicly released or entered in other festivals, which rules out a film that is already online.

Showrunner's Gossip Goblin competition closes December 15 with a $20,000 pool: $15,000 for Best Film, $2,000 for People's Choice, and $1,000 each for Best Screenplay, Best Visuals and Best Performance. Films run 2 to 20 minutes, must be made inside Showrunner Studio in the Gossip Goblin universe, and must carry the official competition watermark. You cannot post the film to social media until after you submit, and every post must carry the watermark.

The AI Slop Film Festival's second season takes final submissions through December 16. Its site lists ten rolling deadlines that began May 26, and the screening is January 23, 2027 at Rumiversal Studio in the Toronto area. Its eight awards include Best AI Film, Best Generative Short, Best Meme Cinema, Best Human x Machine Collaboration and a Visual Glitch Award. Films must be completed in 2023 or later, you must hold the rights, and non-English films need English subtitles. The site does not show fees, so check FilmFreeway.

LAAIMPA, the Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards, runs monthly. Submissions close on the 20th, nominees are announced on the 28th and winners on the last day of the month, so December's cutoff is December 20. Shorts can run up to 10 minutes, features up to 120 and trailers or scenes up to 5. The site describes winner rewards as digital laurels and certificates, and it lists both a $10 participation fee and "no submission fee," so confirm which applies at checkout.

What the money looks like

Cash in this window is thin and concentrated. Showrunner's $20,000 and Artefact's €10,000 are the two verified cash pools, and only Artefact leaves the tool open. Jaipur's figure is festival-wide and depends on government support. The AI Creativity Awards, AI ZONE and LAAIMPA list laurels, certificates or recognition on their own sites without a cash amount that we could verify.

Entry costs are small. The AI Artist Festival is €12, the AI Creativity Awards is £35, and LAAIMPA is either free or $10 depending on which line of its site you trust. For a larger list of payouts, see our ranking of AI film contests with cash prizes, and for entries that cost nothing, our free contests list.

Rules that can disqualify you

Several rules in this window collide if you submit the same film everywhere. The AI Artist Festival wants an unreleased film that has not been in other festivals. TAIFF has the opposite policy and accepts films that already won elsewhere. Artefact caps runtime at 314 seconds and demands AI in all three production phases. Showrunner requires a film built in its own studio, watermarked, and kept off social media until submitted. AI Slop requires English subtitles for non-English films, and JIFF and the others accept any AI tool.

The practical order is to submit the unreleased film to the AI Artist Festival before you publish it anywhere, then send the same film to the contests that allow prior exposure. The Showrunner entry has to be a separate film.

A submission plan for the last ten weeks of 2026

Before November 1, send up to two works to TAIFF, since it allows two per participant, and decide whether the AI Creativity Awards credential is worth £35. By November 15, enter Jaipur's extended tier if you want the ten-category AI competition, and by November 30 enter AI ZONE's free regular tier. Cut a version at or under 314 seconds for Artefact by December 2, making sure your tool list covers pre-production, production and post-production.

On December 5, the AI Artist Festival and Jaipur's final tier close together, so submit the unreleased cut to Beijing first. Build the Showrunner film between now and December 15. AI Slop closes December 16 and LAAIMPA on December 20, so both fit after the larger entries are in. If you only have time for two, Artefact and Showrunner carry the verified cash.

Dates we checked that did not hold up

Five listings did not survive a check against official sources. AI Film Fest Monaco's own rules list an April 25, 2026 deadline for a festival on June 9 and 10 at One Monte Carlo, so it is not open for this window. The Chroma Awards site says Season 2 launches in mid-October and publishes no deadline yet. Curious Refuge's competitions page still shows its 2023 holiday film competition and no 2026 edition. Higgsfield's Make Your Action Scene page shows a February 9 to March 1, 2026 run with winners announced. Berlin AI Film Festival's extended tier closes January 31, 2027 at $40, per its FilmFreeway listing, so it belongs to next month's page rather than this one. See our Berlin AI Film Festival page for the earlier tiers.

The nearest hard stop is November 1. Everything else in this list gives you until at least the 15th, and the largest verified prizes do not close until December.