Experimental AI Film Contests 2026-2027: 8 Open Calls With an Experimental Award

AI in Cagliari (Best Experimental & Visual Innovation, €750, free, closes November 20), Cine Prague AI Film Festival (Best Experimental Film, 5-minute cap, November 28), AI ZONE International (Best Experimental Film, free, November 30), AI Slop in Markham, Ontario (the Visual Glitch Award, December 16), the Berlin AI Film Festival (Experimental & Hybrid Works, December 31), Chroma Awards Season 2 (Experimental & Open Format, free, January 7, 2027), Horizons IA in Punta del Este (Experimental and Videoclip, up to 5 minutes, April 26, 2027) and London AI Independent (Best Experimental Film, rolling deadlines to June 2, 2027). A ninth, the Kerala International AI Film Festival, gives a Best Experimental Film award and opens for entries on January 15, 2027. We read each official listing on October 31 and set out below what each one pays, how long your film can run and what it makes you disclose.

What counts as experimental at an AI festival

None of these festivals publishes a tight definition, so read the award text. London AI Independent says its experimental prize goes to work that takes the frame apart on purpose. M.AI rewards new visual languages, formats and creative processes, judged on conceptual strength, artistic research and formal experimentation. AI Slop's Visual Glitch Award is for bold aesthetic experimentation and digital distortion. Chroma calls its category Experimental & Open Format, which makes it the home for work that fits none of its other ten categories.

In practice that covers abstract and non-narrative shorts, video art, glitch and datamosh pieces, found-footage and archive remixes, poetry films, and hybrid work that mixes live action with generated passages. It also covers the artifacts that narrative juries mark down: morphing anatomy, drifting faces and unstable physics in Runway, Kling, Sora, Veo or Luma output. On a drama jury those are flaws. In an experimental category they can be the point, as long as they look chosen rather than tolerated.

Free experimental awards closing in November

M.AI, the International AI Short Film Festival, runs its first edition December 18 to 20, 2026 at Ex Manifattura Tabacchi in Cagliari, Sardinia. Entry is free, the deadline is November 20, and six awards share €5,750 in cash. Best Experimental & Visual Innovation pays €750; the Grand Prix pays €1,500. Films must be completed after January 1, 2024 and run up to 20 minutes, though the rules allow exceptions for experimental or installation works. Premiere status is not required. Every entry needs an artistic-intention statement and an AI use declaration naming the tools, what they made and which human decisions shaped the result. The jury is announced November 10. M.AI is not yet in our directory; we read its FilmFreeway listing directly.

AI ZONE International AI Film Festival, now in its second edition, lists Best Experimental Film among seven jury awards, alongside comedy, drama, horror and sci-fi. The regular deadline is November 30, notifications go out December 15 and the festival runs online on January 15, 2027. Our listing has entry as free. One detail matters before you submit: the $500 Grand Prize only goes to an officially selected film whose maker agrees to non-exclusive publication on the AI Zone platform. You keep your rights either way, and declining publication still leaves you eligible for laurels and the category awards.

Cine Prague: a 5-minute cap and a $1,000 Grand Prix

Cine Prague limits every 2026 entry to 5 minutes, which suits experimental work better than it suits narrative. Best Experimental Film sits among nine main competition categories, and the jury picks the $1,000 Grand Prix from all officially selected films; the festival says the cash is sponsored by Oprawme se s.r.o. in Prague. Category winners get a handcrafted crystal trophy. Cine Prague is unusual in also taking traditional films and giving a Best Non-AI Film award, so a hybrid piece is safe here. The extended deadline is November 28. Semi-finalists screen in the afternoon of December 1 at Kino Atlas, and finalists screen that evening at Kino Edison Filmhub before the awards. The rules let the festival move your film into whichever category it judges most appropriate, so tag it experimental only if it is.

AI Slop: an award for the glitch

AI Slop is the only festival on this list built around the look most AI festivals screen out. Season 2 screens on January 23, 2027 at Rumiversal Studio, 2800 John Street, Markham, Ontario. Its call welcomes polished films, hybrid work, chaotic experiments, meme edits and what it calls beautiful failures. Three of its nine awards suit experimental work: the Visual Glitch Award, the Future Prompt Award for visionary exploration of AI as a medium, and Slop of the Year for the most chaotic, meme-born piece. There is no runtime limit, films must be completed in 2023 or later, and you must briefly describe how AI was used. Non-English films need English subtitles. The remaining deadlines are November 21 and the Final Curtain on December 16, with notifications on December 23.

Berlin and Chroma: experimental categories with bigger rooms

The Berlin AI Film Festival's rules name three categories, one of them Experimental & Hybrid Works: cross-media, interactive or installation-based projects involving AI. Its FilmFreeway entry options are Full AI Film, Mixed AI Film and Feature AI Film, so an experimental piece goes in through one of those. Awards are Best AI Film and Best Mixed AI Film, each with festival strategy counseling from NewBorn Short Film Agency valued at $1,500, plus two jury special mentions. Films must be completed after January 1, 2024. The extended deadline is December 31 at $40, and the second edition runs February 16 and 17, 2027 at Z-Cinema in Berlin.

Chroma Awards Season 2 is the largest call on the list by money. Its Film & TV division has eleven categories sharing $38,000, and Experimental & Open Format is one of them. Across all divisions Chroma lists more than $450,000 in cash and travel perks, plus sponsored-tool awards for creators using tools such as Kling, Luma, PixVerse, MiniMax and ElevenLabs. Entry is free and unlimited, with one category per project, for projects made after February 1, 2026. Submissions close January 7, 2027 at 11:45 PM Pacific, finalists face public voting and judging from January 21, and winners are announced February 11.

Rolling and spring deadlines

London AI Independent takes films up to 60 minutes from independent producers only; studio-financed work is not eligible. AI has to contribute meaningfully to generation, animation, editing, sound or concept, but it does not have to dominate the finished film, which suits a hybrid experimental piece. Its seven jury awards include Best Experimental Film. It runs ten rolling deadlines, the next on November 25 and December 22, the last on June 2, 2027, with the screening and director Q&A on June 19, 2027 at Sirlute Studios, 7 Botanic Square, London E14.

Horizons IA in Punta del Este, Uruguay, puts experimental films and music videos in one category with a 5-minute cap. Films must date from 2025 or later, and the rules require AI to be central to image, sound, script, editing or concept. Fees run from $12 at the early deadline of January 8, 2027 to $24 at the extended deadline of April 26. Non-Spanish films need embedded Spanish subtitles or a timed SRT file; the rules call this mandatory. No prizes are listed beyond a three-person jury per category and a free-admission screening at The Grand Hotel in May 2027.

The Kerala International AI Film Festival opens submissions on January 15, 2027 and closes them February 15. Best Experimental Film is one of six award groups, works must run at least two minutes, and the festival takes place in Kochi from April 22 to 25, 2027. Fees are not published yet.

Calls that take experimental work without a separate prize

The International AI Short Film Festival (IASFF) accepts experimental work in both its International and National competitions and gives a Most Innovative Prompt award for technical integration of generated material. Its extended deadline is November 10 at $30, films can run 30 minutes, and every entry needs a Statement of AI Labor listing your tools and an estimated split between human curation and AI generation. Selected films stream on YouTube from December 8 to 15.

The Global AI Music Video Awards take experimental music videos until January 1, 2027, with a $1,000 prize pool. Two Italian calls with video art and experimental sections, (UN)REAL in Turin and VISIONARIA in Rome, close today, October 31.

What experimental winners have in common

Short and specific wins. At the 2026 Shortest AI Film competition, run by the Forward Festival for Creativity with LTX Studio for $5,500 in prizes, third place went to Out of Office by Quentin Baes and Margaux Lemercinier, which turns desk objects into wildlife in an open landscape. Forward's own recap credits the top films with using the tool for storytelling rather than as a demo. That is the bar in an experimental category: one formal idea, held for the whole runtime, which no camera could have produced.

Three habits help at every festival above. Write the AI statement before you submit, because M.AI, IASFF, AI Slop and Horizons IA all ask for one, and for an experimental film it doubles as your artist statement. Keep a 5-minute cut, since Cine Prague and Horizons IA cap there. And check premiere rules: M.AI does not require premiere status, so you can enter it alongside the others.

Which experimental contest to enter first

If your film is finished, start with the free calls closing soonest: M.AI on November 20, then AI ZONE on November 30. Add Cine Prague by November 28 if your cut runs 5 minutes or less. Send anything glitch-heavy or deliberately broken to AI Slop by December 16. Chroma is free and open until January 7, so enter it in Experimental & Open Format whatever else you do. Berlin and London AI Independent are the paid options with a real screening room, and Horizons IA and Kerala carry you into spring 2027. Every contest in our directory has a full listing on aifilmcontests.com, and the subscribe form at the bottom sends new calls, including new experimental awards, to your inbox.