AI Film Festivals in Los Angeles 2026-2027: Four Open Calls, Deadlines and Prizes

WAIFF Los Angeles, the US edition of the World AI Film Festival, closes January 20, 2027 and sends five films to Cannes. LAAIMPA, the Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards, runs a monthly cycle that closes on the 20th of every month. The AI International Film Festival, which has screened in Hollywood since 2021, has a regular deadline of November 21 for a January 9, 2027 show. We read each official site or FilmFreeway listing on October 27.

Why Los Angeles matters for AI film

Los Angeles hosted the biggest AI film money of 2026. The Future Vision XPRIZE, a $3.5 million science fiction competition backed by Google and Range Media Partners, announced its winners on stage at Moonshots Live in downtown Los Angeles in late September. GamesBeat reported that The Gifted by Jeff Synthesized won the grand prize: a $2.5 million equity investment toward a feature and $100,000 for screenplay development. Four runners-up took $100,000 each, led by Nobody Dies on Mars from Verena Puhm.

Runway's AI Festival screened its 2026 finalists at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica on June 18, a week after its Lincoln Center premiere in New York. The Silicon Valley AI Film Festival booked the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, the Academy Awards stage, for its 2026 awards. The Tyrannus Angel Awards held a red-carpet gala downtown on October 24 with a $50,000 pool, and Neu Wave screened its top five films during LA Tech Week on October 14 and 15.

Most of those calls are closed. The four below are the ways into a Los Angeles screening room over the next five months.

Hollywood AI Short Film Awards: final deadline January 11, 2027

The Hollywood AI Short Film Awards (HASFA) is in its second season. The 2027 ceremony is on Saturday, February 13, 2027 at the London West Hollywood Screening Room, 1020 N San Vicente Boulevard, during Super Bowl weekend, followed by a Champions of Storytelling reception. Only winners and award recipients screen in the Winners Showcase.

It pays cash, which no other open Los Angeles AI festival does. Best Picture wins $750. Seven genre awards (Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Sci-Fi, Documentary and Animation) pay $250 each, and the Emerging Creator Award pays $250, for $2,750 in total. Audience Choice, Best Branded Commercial and Best Music Video carry laurels but no cash. Prizes are paid electronically within 30 days of the ceremony.

The deadline ladder: Regular closes October 31, Late on December 15 and Final on January 11, 2027. Notifications go out January 22. When we listed the festival in September, fees ran from $25 at earlybird to $55 at the final deadline, per category. FilmFreeway did not show fees to a signed-out visitor on October 27, so check the checkout page.

The rules are short. Films must be completed on or after January 1, 2024, run 22 minutes or less including credits, and carry English subtitles if they are not in English. AI has to play a meaningful creative role somewhere: development, production, post, animation, design or audio. Rough cuts are accepted if the final cut is ready before the show, and you can enter several categories. Last season's reviews include a Best AI Documentary winner, Hornless by Damla Ayzeren.

WAIFF Los Angeles: regular deadline November 30, late January 20

WAIFF Los Angeles is the US edition of the World AI Film Festival, whose grand finale is at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. The LA festival runs in late March 2027; the site gives no exact day or venue yet. Notifications go out February 15, 2027, and WAIFF Cannes is April 6 and 7, 2027.

Nine categories cover almost any format: Live Action Short (3 to 40 minutes), Feature (over 40), Animated Short, Documentary, Vertical and Mobile (30 seconds to 3 minutes), Music Video, Advertisement (15 seconds to 3 minutes), AR/VR/XR and Gaming. Two flag awards for Best Student and Best Youth (ages 13 to 18) cut across them, for 11 trophies. A grand jury picks five winners to advance to Cannes, and one of the five is named the WAIFF USA Grand Prix.

Fees are $45 at the regular deadline on November 30 and $60 at the late deadline on January 20, 2027, with student and youth rates of $25 and $35. Features cost $5 more per tier. Anyone 13 or older can enter, but advancing to Cannes and the Grand Prix are limited to US-based creators, which includes US citizens living abroad. There is no premiere rule, so a film already on YouTube is fine. The one hard requirement is a Production Journal naming the AI tools you used; the site says entries without one will not be reviewed.

LAAIMPA: monthly deadline on the 20th

The Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards works on a monthly clock. Submissions close on the 20th, nominees are announced on the 28th, and winners on the last day of the month. The next two cutoffs are November 20 and December 20. Entry is a $10 participation fee through the laaimpa.com form, or you can enter through FilmFreeway.

There are 14 categories, among them Best Short Film, Best Sci Fi Film, Best Horror, Best Animation, Best Kids Animation, Best Drama, Best Visual Effects, Best Advertising, Best Music Video, Best AI Created Character and Best AI Screenplay. Films can run up to 30 minutes, and trailers or single scenes up to 5 minutes are accepted for projects that are not finished. Each filmmaker can send two works per cycle and cannot resubmit the same one.

The prize is recognition: digital laurels, a certificate and a feature on LAAIMPA's site and social channels. No cash is listed. September's winners included a Diet Coke AI spec commercial for Best Advertising and 3050 for Best Sci Fi Film. Because the cycle repeats every month, LAAIMPA is the fastest feedback loop in Los Angeles: enter by November 20 and you know by November 30.

AI International Film Festival: regular deadline November 21

The AI International Film Festival calls itself the world's first AI film festival. It has run since 2021 as a nonprofit and now screens roughly monthly at the Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory, 1534 N. Highland Avenue, near the Walk of Fame. Volume 28 screens on Saturday, November 14, and the festival says earlier shows have sold out.

Its current call opened October 24. The early bird deadline is October 31, the regular deadline is November 21, notifications go out November 27, and FilmFreeway lists the event date as January 9, 2027. There are 68 categories, from Best Picture and Best AI Short Film to Best AI Vertical Short, Best AI Vertical Series, live-action and hybrid AI categories, and newer ones such as Best AI Warfare Short Film. Fees are on FilmFreeway.

Judging is unusual. Films are judged blind, screened one at a time and discussed on stage before the next one plays, and jury and audience awards are decided the same afternoon. Winners join a Winners Guild, a network of past winners. A new strand, Film Superintelligence, asks for films about life after AI surpasses human intelligence and holds its first show on December 12 at the same venue.

Hollywood screenings you can attend this fall

If you are in Los Angeles and want to see what wins, two shows are coming up. The AI International Film Festival's Volume 28 is November 14 at the Performing Arts Conservatory, with tickets at tickets.aifilmfest.org. The African AI Film Festival holds its Hollywood premiere on November 21 and a Kampala premiere on December 12. Its call closed October 20, entry was free for filmmakers based in Africa, and its nine awards include Best Film by an African-Based Filmmaker. Founding partners include ElevenLabs, and winners get Runway and Adobe credits rather than cash.

Las Vegas is the nearest other option. AI Film Awards Las Vegas takes entries on FilmFreeway in short, long, documentary, video clip and AI-enhanced categories, but its listing posted no deadlines or event date on October 27.

Which Los Angeles festival fits your film

If you need cash, HASFA is the only open LA option, and its $250 genre awards make a horror, comedy or documentary short competitive without beating every film in the room. Enter before December 15 to avoid the final-tier fee.

If you are US-based and want Cannes, WAIFF Los Angeles is the route. Pay the $45 regular fee by November 30, and write the Production Journal before you upload: list what you used for each stage, whether that was Runway, Veo, Sora, Kling, Midjourney, ElevenLabs or Suno.

If you want quick feedback on a short, a trailer or a spec ad, LAAIMPA costs $10 and answers in ten days. Use it to test a cut before paying bigger fees.

If you want a live audience, the AI International Film Festival screens to a full room and discusses each film on stage. Its 68 categories include vertical and series work that most festivals do not take.

None of these pays more than $750 to one film. For bigger money, the AKOOL AI Film Challenge is free with a $50,000 grand prize and closes December 20, and the Chroma Awards Season 2 offers $450,000 or more in cash and travel perks and closes January 7, 2027. Enter those for prize money and use the Los Angeles festivals for screenings and laurels.