AI Film Festivals in Montréal 2026-2027: Four Open Calls in Montréal and Québec City

AI CINEMA closes February 5, 2027 and screens at Funamis on Boulevard Saint-Laurent on March 5. Studio. AI Cinema Festival Québec City closes January 24, 2027 and runs February 19 to 21 at the Hilton Québec. None of the four publishes a cash prize. We read every official site and FilmFreeway listing below on November 3.

Four Québec AI screening dates between January and July

Here is the calendar in the order the films reach a screen:

January 18, 2027: Montreal AI Indie Festival, Dragon Jam Music Rehearsal, 1088 Rue Clark (final deadline January 4). February 19 to 21, 2027: AI Cinema Festival Québec City, Hilton Québec, 1100 boulevard René-Lévesque Est (deadline January 24). March 5, 2027: AI CINEMA, Funamis, 998 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, 4th floor (final deadline February 5). July 24, 2027: AI Independent Montreal Festival, SPKR.Studio, 4030 Rue Saint-Ambroise (final deadline July 2).

All four are young, small events run through FilmFreeway or their own sites, not arms of an older festival. That is good news for a filmmaker with one strong short: selection pools are smaller than at Runway's AI Film Festival or the Chroma Awards. The trade-off is the prize. You win a trophy, laurels and a room full of people watching your film. If you need money, pair a Montréal run with one of the free global contests that pay cash.

Why Montréal is an AI film city

Montréal is one of the world's main AI research hubs. Mila, the Quebec AI institute founded by Yoshua Bengio at the Université de Montréal, says it brings together more than 1,200 machine learning researchers and is known for its work on generative models. In November 2022 the National Film Board of Canada's Montréal-based Interactive Studio signed a partnership with Mila to pair artists with AI researchers, according to the NFB's announcement on canada.ca.

The city is also where Canada's film money is managed. Telefilm Canada, headquartered in Montréal, adopted its first business policy on generative AI on November 17, 2025. It applies to every Telefilm funding program, keeps human creative roles at the centre, and says new tools should not put an applicant's funding at risk as long as program rules are followed. The same month the CRTC ruled that AI cannot fill the key creative positions used to certify a production as Canadian content, as Unpublished reported on November 18, 2025. If you are a Canadian creator planning to move from AI shorts to funded work, those two rules matter more than any festival laurel.

Montréal's biggest genre festival is not an AI festival. Fantasia's 31st edition runs July 15 to August 1, 2027 and accepts films until April 15, 2027. Its call for entry, as reposted by Asian Film Festivals on October 30, 2026, asks for a Montréal premiere and says nothing about AI, so read its full FAQ before sending a generated film there.

Montreal AI Indie Festival: next deadline November 21, final January 4

This is the first Montréal AI screening of 2027 and the most romantic listing we have read this year. It is one night at Dragon Jam Music Rehearsal, 1088 Rue Clark, on January 18, 2027, with doors at 5:00 PM. Festival director Sebastian Drag says every eligible film is watched in full by people, not skimmed.

The remaining deadlines are the Strong Deadline on November 21, the Birds of Feather deadline on December 13 and the final deadline on January 4, 2027. Notifications go out January 11. The rules are open: films from any country, AI-generated, AI-assisted, hybrid and traditionally shot work judged together, a 40-minute maximum, and a completion date after January 1, 2024. Non-English films need English or French subtitles. You keep your rights and can enter more than one film.

There are eight awards, each with a name: the AI Marble Angel for Best Film, the AI Violet Hour for Best Director, the AI Confession for Best Screenplay, the AI Electric Muse for Best AI Film, the AI Neon Halo for Best Cinematography, the AI Heartbeat for Best Editing, the AI Anthem for Best Sound and Score, and the AI Enfant for Best Emerging Filmmaker. Winners get a physical marble angel award, a filmed interview and a press feature. Selected filmmakers get two invitations to the night.

One caution: the listing's prose still mentions a September 3 screening in two places, a leftover from an earlier edition. The dates table says January 18, 2027. FilmFreeway did not show fees to a signed-out visitor on November 3, so check the checkout page before you pay.

AI Cinema Festival Québec City: deadline January 24, 2027

Québec City's festival is the one to choose if you care about how your film was made, not only how it looks. It runs February 19 to 21, 2027 at the Hilton Québec, 1100 boulevard René-Lévesque Est, and the submission deadline is January 24. The site is fully bilingual.

There are three competition tracks. Human + AI Cinema is for hybrid work. Full AI Film is for fully generated films. Future Formats covers vertical, immersive, interactive, micro-short, trailer, fashion film, music video, XR and experimental work. The festival says it judges point of view, image, sound, editing, story, consent, responsibility and emotional impact. Awards are the Grand Prix Québec, Best Human + AI Direction, Best AI Cinematography, the Responsible AI Cinema Award and the Audience Signal Award. No cash amount is published, and fees are not listed on the main page. Write to quebec@aicinemafestival.com with questions.

Québec City is part of the AI Cinema Festival network at aicinemafestival.com, which ran an online-only Montréal edition on September 13, 2026 and a Canada edition in Ottawa that screens November 13, 2026. The Montréal page on that network shows no 2027 edition yet.

AI CINEMA: final deadline February 5, 2027

Do not confuse this festival with the network above. AI CINEMA runs from iamcinemafestival.com and FilmFreeway under the handle IAMCINEMA, and it is a separate organization. It screens on March 5, 2027 at 6:00 PM at Funamis, 998 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, 4th floor. Before you pay any Montréal entry fee, check the domain on the checkout page.

AI CINEMA has the widest rules in the province. It takes micro-shorts up to 5 minutes, shorts up to 40, mid-length films from 40 to 60 and features over 60 minutes, completed within the last three years. Premiere status is not required, so a film that already played elsewhere is fine. Non-English films need English subtitles, which means a French-language film needs English subtitles here, unlike the other three Québec festivals. You must briefly describe your AI tools and the human and AI split of the work, but the festival says that disclosure is for context and is not scored.

The awards list is long: more than 30 named prizes in six groups, from the AI CINEMA Grand Prize, Best Prompt and Best Human + AI Collaboration to Best Dark Vision, Best Comedy Mutation and a Beautiful Glitch Award. The remaining deadlines are The Echo on December 9, the Late Deadline on January 7 and the Final Deadline on February 5, 2027. Decisions arrive February 15.

AI Independent Montreal Festival: ten deadlines to July 2, 2027

This festival is for one person with a point of view. It accepts self-produced and independently financed films up to 40 minutes, and AI has to appear somewhere in the build: generation, animation, effects, sound, music, voice, editing, writing or development. It screens July 24, 2027 at SPKR.Studio, 4030 Rue Saint-Ambroise in Saint-Henri, with a Q&A for directors who attend.

Deadlines are named after camera language and run monthly: Deep Focus on November 19, Low Angle on December 17, Slow Pan on January 14, then Rack Focus, Wide Shot, Match Cut, Eye Line and Hard Light through June, ending with the Final Word on July 2, 2027. Films in French or English screen as they are; anything else needs French or English subtitles.

The six awards suit solo work: the Independent Vision Award as the grand prize, the Against the Grain Award for unconventional films, the New Auteur Award for debuts, the Latent Worlds Award for world-building, the Solo Creator Award and the Open Frame Award for experimental work. The rules say anything a model generated for you has to be cleared for your use, and entry fees are not refundable.

How to plan a Montréal and Québec run

One short under 40 minutes can enter all four festivals. Every one of them accepts hybrid work, and none of the listings we read asks for a premiere. A rough order for a film finished now: the Montreal AI Indie Festival before its November 21 or December 13 deadline, AI CINEMA before December 9 while the earlier tiers are open, the AI Independent Montreal Festival at whichever monthly deadline you hit first, and Québec City by January 24.

Three practical notes. First, if your film is in French, add English subtitles for AI CINEMA. Second, write one honest paragraph about your workflow, which tools you used in Runway, Kling, Veo, Midjourney or ElevenLabs and what you did by hand, because AI CINEMA asks for it and Québec City judges responsibility. Third, check every fee at checkout, since none of the four showed one to us.

For more Canadian dates, Toronto has four open AI calls, including Veritas (November 30) and AI Slop (December 16). Our Canada page covers the full country.