AI Film Festivals in France 2026: Paris and Cannes Deadlines, From WAIFF's €15 Tier to Artefact's €10,000

The Artefact AI Film Festival in Paris closes December 2 and pays €10,000 to its winner. After that come the Cannes Film Awards AI category (January 21, 2027), WAIFF's final deadline (February 15) and the World Film Festival in Cannes annual cutoff (March 30). We confirmed four of them against official sites or rules documents on October 22; the fifth, AI Cinema Festival Cannes, we could not, and we explain why below. France has nine AI film festivals in our directory, and every one of them is in Cannes or Paris.

Why France matters for AI filmmakers

France has two things most countries running AI film festivals do not: Cannes and a cinema industry willing to sit on AI juries. The 2026 WAIFF jury included Gong Li as festival president, Agnès Jaoui as jury president and Claude Lelouch as honorary president. Artefact's third edition is judged by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the directors of Intouchables. Its first edition was chaired by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and the second by Cédric Klapisch.

The money is real too. Artefact pays €13,000 in announced cash. The We Are Human Festival in Paris splits €10,000 across three prizes. MarsAI in Marseille gave its winner €10,000 in development funding in June 2026.

One warning before you pay any fee. None of the Cannes events on this page is the Festival de Cannes. WAIFF screens at the Palais des Festivals, the same building, but it is a separate event run by Institut EuropIA and Studio Laffitte. The Cannes Film Awards states on its FilmFreeway page that it has no link to the Festival de Cannes. A Cannes laurel from any of them is worth something on a reel, but say what it is when you pitch.

Open now: the five French calls, by deadline

WAIFF Cannes 2027. The Grand Finale runs April 6 to 7, 2027 at the Palais des Festivals. Per the official 2027 competition rules, submissions opened September 15, 2026 and close February 15, 2027. Fees go up in three steps: €15 per film until November 15, €30 from November 16 to January 31, and €60 from February 1 to 15. Platform fees can apply on top. The short film competition takes 5 to 15 minutes. Features must run over 30 minutes, series need at least two episodes of 5 to 30 minutes each, and advertising films must have been produced in 2026 or later. A CapCut competition takes either a 5 to 15 minute short or a vertical mini-drama of four to six one-minute episodes made mainly with CapCut tools. The WAIFF Horizons section is only for finalists picked by the partner-country editions.

Artefact AI Film Festival, Paris. The third edition closes December 2, 2026. The official site lists €10,000 for the best film plus a 30-second cut shown in every mk2 cinema for a week, and €1,000 each for a Jury Award, an Audience Award and the best use of AI. The theme is "(Dis)Connection". Films can run up to 314 seconds, and you have to use a generative AI tool in pre-production, production and post-production. The audience vote runs December 9, 2026 to January 13, 2027, and the ceremony is in February 2027 at mk2 Bibliothèque. The site lists no entry fee. Our Artefact page covers the rules and past winners in detail.

Cannes Film Awards, AI Film category. The last-call deadline is January 21, 2027, and the festival runs June 25 to 27, 2027 at the Olympia Cinema in Cannes. The AI category is new for 2027. Its $1,000 cash pool goes to six non-AI categories, so an AI win brings a laurel and a promotional package rather than cash. Films must be completed after January 1, 2023, and AI use must be disclosed in the end credits.

World Film Festival in Cannes, Remember the Future. This is a monthly and annual competition with an AI film category. Its official site says 2027 entries are open until March 30 and the next annual event is June 26, 2027. Monthly "Best of Future" screenings in Cannes let the audience vote for a prize. The organizer has also launched seven AI-only sister competitions, covering music, script, documentary, animation, advertising, metaverse and cinema. Fees are tiered on FilmFreeway.

AI Cinema Festival Cannes 2027. Our directory lists this one with an October 17, 2027 deadline and a November 2027 festival. We could not confirm those dates on October 22. The official site returned an error, and the last version we could read described a one-day online edition on May 31, 2026, with submissions by YouTube or Google Drive link. Treat it as unverified until the organizer posts 2027 details.

Recently closed, and what to watch for in 2027

Four French events closed in the past few months. They show the range of what France runs, and most will likely come back.

We Are Human Festival, Paris. The call for 1 to 10 minute films on AI and human rights closed September 30. The festival runs November 24, 2026 at the Forum des Images, then tours to São Paulo (December 10) and New York (December 17). The prizes are a €5,000 Grand Prix, €3,000 for Best Screenplay and €2,000 for an Ethics Prize. Entry was free, and each film came with a short written note on how the maker used AI.

World AI Cinema Festival, Cannes. This is part of the World Film Festival in Cannes network. It closed October 6, and its event is October 30, 2026. It awards laurels and certificates rather than cash.

New World AI Film Festival, Paris. This online festival closed September 16 and screened October 1 to 8. Fees started at €9 on Festhome, with prizes for best film per category, best first-time AI filmmaker and best screenplay.

MarsAI Festival, Marseille. La Plateforme, a digital-skills school with campuses in Marseille, Cannes, Paris and Lille, ran its first edition on June 19, 2026. Films had to be exactly one minute long and fit the theme "Imagine Desirable Futures". The winner received €10,000 in development funding. No 2027 date has been posted yet.

What French juries have rewarded

WAIFF's official 2026 prize list puts Costa Verde, a 12-minute short by Léo Cannone, at the top. French directors including Anne Horel (La Tisseuse d'Ombres) and Jules Blachier (La Sélection Mécanique) also appear on the winners list. The selection was tight. WAIFF reported nearly 5,500 submissions for 2026, Screen International reported more than 7,000, and 54 films made the official selection.

Artefact's second edition drew 265 films from 52 countries. François Brogi, who heads Artefact 3000, puts the festival's priority plainly on its site: "This festival is, above all, a film festival." He means story and emotion first, tools second.

French festivals also want to know how you used AI, and several put it in the rules. We Are Human asked for a written ethics note with each film. WAIFF's rules say its selection committee reviews production files to understand what the AI contributed. The Cannes Film Awards wants AI disclosed in the end credits. Keep a log of the tools and settings you used per shot so you can answer all three.

Which French festival should you enter?

If you have a short under 314 seconds, enter Artefact first. It is free as far as the official site shows, it pays the most cash, and it closes December 2.

If your film runs 5 to 15 minutes, enter WAIFF by November 15 to pay €15 instead of €30. If you live in a country with a WAIFF regional edition, check whether that edition is still open. Its finalists reach the Cannes Grand Finale through a separate competition.

If you want a summer screening in Cannes, the Cannes Film Awards (January 21) and the World Film Festival in Cannes (March 30) both hold events in late June 2027. Neither pays cash for AI work, so enter for the screening and the laurel, not the money.

If you make one-minute films, keep an eye on MarsAI. Its 2026 call opened in April, so a 2027 call may follow in spring.

The rules above don't limit which tools you use. Films made with Runway, Kling, Veo, Sora, Luma, Hailuo or Midjourney all qualify, and so do voices from ElevenLabs and music from Suno. CapCut is the exception, because WAIFF's CapCut prize requires you to make the film mainly in CapCut.

The contest cards below link to each French festival we track. For the rest of Europe, see our guides to AI film festivals in Europe, Italy and the UK. Subscribe at the bottom of this page and we will email you when the 2027 French calls open.