AI Film Festivals 2027: 21 Verified Deadlines, From Jaipur in January to Bengaluru in August

The first screenings are in January: the Jaipur International Film Festival's World AI Cinema Competition (January 8 to 12), the online AI ZONE festival (January 15) and the International AI Film Festival of Kerala in Kochi (January 22 to 24). The biggest single event is the World AI Film Festival Grand Finale at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes on April 6 and 7, 2027, which you reach through a regional edition, not by entering Cannes directly. The latest deadline we have verified belongs to the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival's AI section, which closes April 30, 2027 for a festival in August. Every date below was checked against the festival's own site or FilmFreeway listing on September 30, 2026.

Why the 2027 calendar fills up so early

AI film festivals run on long, tiered submission windows. A festival held in February 2027 usually opened entries in spring 2026 and raises its fee at each cut-off. The Berlin AI Film Festival's FilmFreeway listing shows the pattern: $10 at the earlybird deadline in March 2026, $20 in May, $30 in July, and $40 for the extended deadline of January 31, 2027. LundinStudio's Ai Film Festival in Australia runs monthly cut-offs from May 2026 to January 21, 2027, and its fee climbs from $10 each month. If you already have a finished film, entering in October or November costs less than waiting for the final call.

The second reason is feeder structures. The World AI Film Festival (WAIFF) picks its Cannes finalists through city editions held between September 2026 and March 2027, so the practical deadline for Cannes 2027 is whichever regional edition you qualify for. We cover that route in detail in our WAIFF 2027 guide.

Deadlines in October to December 2026, festivals in early 2027

These calls close this year and screen in the first weeks of 2027.

Slamdance, DIG category: closes October 6, 2026. Slamdance's official submission page says films made through or with AI are strongly encouraged to submit to DIG (Digital, Interactive and Gaming), and the prize track includes the $25,000 AGBO Fellowship.

WAIFF Buenos Aires: closes October 9, 2026, open only to Argentine nationals and residents, screening October 30. The jury sends five Argentine films to WAIFF Cannes 2027.

International AI Film Festival of Kerala (AIFFK), third edition: submissions open October 15, 2026 and close at the end of November (the official site prints the deadline as "31 Nov 2026", a date that does not exist, so plan for November 30). The festival runs January 22 to 24, 2027 in Kochi. Entries must be at least two minutes long. Categories include Best AI Film, Best Narration, Best Cinematography, Sound Music and Design, and Best Experimental Film.

WAIFF London: super-late deadline November 17, 2026 for UK-based creators, ceremony November 24. Five winners advance to Cannes.

AI ZONE International AI Film Festival: free to enter, regular deadline November 30, 2026, online festival January 15, 2027. Its single category, Best AI Mini Movie, accepts AI-generated and AI-assisted work of any genre, including animation and hybrid formats, as long as AI plays a significant role.

Veritas AI Film Festival: $9 entry, deadline November 30, 2026, one screening of short AI films at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto on February 20, 2027. Films must run under seven minutes.

Jaipur International Film Festival, World AI Cinema Competition: final deadline December 5, 2026, festival January 8 to 12, 2027. JIFF lists ten AI categories, from AI Short Film and AI Feature Film to AI Student Film, AI Screenplay Award and AI-Assisted Film (Human + AI).

AI Slop Film Festival, Season 2: $10 per entry at every tier, final curtain December 16, 2026, screening January 23, 2027 in Markham, Ontario. Categories include Best AI Film, Slop of the Year and Best Human x Machine Collaboration.

Deadlines in January and February 2027

This is the busiest stretch of the 2027 calendar, with seven deadlines in five weeks.

Global AI Music Video Awards (GAIMVA): final deadline January 1, 2027 on Festhome, fees from $20 early to $40 late, $1,000 in cash prizes, festival April 24, 2027. It has 17 categories, including Best Student AI Music Video.

Hollywood AI Short Film Awards (HASFA): final deadline January 11, 2027. The ceremony is February 13, 2027 at the London West Hollywood Screening Room, during Super Bowl weekend. Per its FilmFreeway listing, HASFA pays $2,750 in cash: $750 for Best Picture and $250 each for seven genre awards and an Emerging Creator Award. Fees run from $25 to $55 per category, films can run up to 22 minutes, and they must have been completed on or after January 1, 2024.

WAIFF Los Angeles: closes January 20, 2027, festival March 29 to 30, 2027. The top five films go to the Cannes finale. Nine categories include vertical, advertising, AR/VR/XR and gaming.

LundinStudio Ai Film Festival: final deadline January 21, 2027, event March 18 to 19, 2027, based in Helensburgh, New South Wales. Best AI Short Film requires an original script, AI-generated shots in every scene, and a running time of 1 to 10 minutes. Second place pays $300 plus a refund of the entry fee.

Cannes Film Awards: last-call deadline January 21, 2027, event June 25 to 27, 2027. This is an independent awards event on the Riviera with a new AI film category, not the Festival de Cannes. Its all-category entry fee started at $150 in May 2026 and rises by tier, which makes it the most expensive entry on this list.

AI Cinema Festival Québec City: deadline January 24, 2027, festival February 19 to 21 at the Hilton Québec. It has three tracks (Human + AI Cinema, Full AI Film and Future Formats) and five awards, including a Responsible AI Cinema Award.

Berlin AI Film Festival, second edition: extended deadline January 31, 2027, event February 16 to 17, 2027. Two competition categories, Full AI Film and Mixed AI Film, at $10 to $40. Best Film winners receive festival strategy counseling from NewBorn Short Film Agency, valued at $1,500, and a 12-month iPitch.tv subscription.

AI CINEMA, Montréal: final deadline February 5, 2027, one evening of screenings and awards on March 5, 2027 at Funamis. The site lists 28-plus award categories across six groups, from the AI CINEMA Grand Prize to a Beautiful Glitch Award.

Deadlines from March to June 2027

PROMPT Festival, Toronto: ten rolling rounds, the last ("Last Frame") closing April 16, 2027. Entry is $15, or $10 with FilmFreeway Gold. Notifications go out May 4 and the screening is May 16, 2027. There are 15 categories, including the signature Best Prompt award, and no cash prize.

Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, AI Film section: opens February 1, 2027, regular deadline February 28, late deadline April 30, festival August 5 to 15, 2027. The festival's International Competition is accredited by the Academy for Oscar qualification. The AI section is a separate competition, so check its rules before assuming the same status.

AI for Good Film Festival (ITU, United Nations): entries open January 15 and close May 1, 2027 at 23:59 CEST. Films must be 1 to 10 minutes long and completed between September 1, 2026 and May 1, 2027, so a film you finish this autumn qualifies. Winners get a speaker pass to the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, held the week of June 21 to 25, 2027, plus a trophy.

Sin Cámara, second edition: a Spanish-language AI short film festival for creators in Spain and Latin America. Uploads close May 5, 2027, public voting closes May 31, and the awards gala is in June 2027. Shorts can run up to three minutes, and the site names Grok, Sora, Runway and Midjourney among the tools you can use.

Seoul International AI Film Festival, sixth edition: ceremony, screening and gala on May 30, 2027 at the enTravel Cultural Complex in Gangnam, with a director talk on May 31. Winners receive trophies or certificates, and the jury screens ten winning films on the night. The listing did not show a final 2027 deadline on the day we checked.

AI Cinema Festival NYC: deadline June 20, 2027, festival July 16 to 18 at the New York Hilton Midtown. Its site calls the edition "not a tech demo and not a prompt contest".

What we left out, and why

Four 2027 listings in circulation did not survive checking. The AI Cinema Festival's Cannes site still shows its 2026 online edition, not a November 2027 event. MetaMorph's site announces its 2026 winners but no 2027 rules or dates yet. An "Expo AI Film Festival Dubai 2027" listing shares every date with LundinStudio's Australian festival, and its official site returned no details. The WAIFF site lists Abidjan, Tokyo, Seoul and São Paulo editions for early 2027 without published entry windows. We add each one to the directory when its call for entries can be verified.

How to plan one film across the 2027 circuit

Most of these festivals let you enter a film already shown elsewhere, so one strong short can run the whole calendar. Three rules decide where it fits.

Runtime. Sin Cámara caps films at three minutes, Veritas at seven, LundinStudio and AI for Good at ten, and HASFA at 22. Kerala wants at least two. A four-to-six-minute cut clears nearly all of them.

How much AI. LundinStudio requires AI-generated shots in every scene. Berlin and Québec split fully AI films from hybrid ones, so a Runway, Kling, Veo or Sora film with live-action plates belongs in their mixed or Human + AI tracks. HASFA and AI for Good accept AI used anywhere in the pipeline, including sound made with tools like ElevenLabs or Suno.

Completion date. AI for Good accepts only films finished after September 1, 2026. HASFA and Berlin accept anything completed from January 1, 2024. If your best film is from 2025, skip AI for Good and aim it at the rest.

A realistic 2027 run for a single short: Kerala and AI ZONE in November, HASFA and Berlin in January, your country's WAIFF edition for Cannes, then AI for Good in April with a newer film.

Money is scarce, so choose by what you need

Cash prizes are rare on the 2027 calendar. HASFA's $2,750 pool and GAIMVA's $1,000 are the only verified cash amounts above, plus LundinStudio's $300 second prize and Slamdance's $25,000 AGBO Fellowship. Most of the rest pay in screenings, laurels, trophies and access. That is not worthless: a Palais des Festivals screening through WAIFF or a speaker pass at a UN summit carries more weight in a pitch deck than a $250 award. But if you need prize money, look at contests with cash pools that close this year, such as PixLight ($300,000, October 31), which you will find in our October deadlines roundup.