AI Cinema Festival Cannes 2027 is awarding a Grand Prix Cannes trophy to human-led AI filmmaking across short, feature and experimental categories
The AI Cinema Festival Cannes runs 12–14 November 2027 in Cannes, France, with awards for direction, cinematography, responsible AI use and audience choice. Deadline 17 October 2027.
Cannes has long been the address where cinema history is made, and for 2027 that address is opening its doors to AI-assisted and fully AI-generated film. The AI Cinema Festival Cannes will screen and award work across three days, 12–14 November 2027, in the same city that has hosted the world's most scrutinised film competition for decades. The centrepiece is a Grand Prix Cannes trophy, which is a physical object with genuine symbolic weight in the international film community.
The festival positions itself around what it calls human-led AI cinema, meaning the emphasis is on films where a human creative vision shapes the work, whether AI tools contribute to every frame or only to specific elements of production. That framing matters because it sets the tone for how entries are judged: this is not a technology showcase, it is a film festival that accepts AI as a production method.
What you submit
The festival accepts short films, features and experimental works. Hybrid human-and-AI workflows are explicitly welcomed alongside fully AI-generated pieces. Any AI tool is permitted, so there is no restriction on which software, model or pipeline you use. Global submissions are open, with no stated geographic restriction.
Prize structure
Five awards are listed on the official page:
- Grand Prix Cannes — the headline trophy
- Best Human + AI Direction
- Best AI Cinematography
- Responsible AI Cinema Award
- Audience Signal Award
The page does not specify cash amounts attached to any of these awards. The prizes are described in terms of trophies and category recognition. If financial compensation is important to your decision to enter, check the official festival site for a full breakdown before committing time and resources.
Entry fee and how to apply
The aggregator listing states "see festival site" for the entry fee, meaning no fee is confirmed in the page text reviewed here. Visit the official festival site to confirm current submission fees before applying, as festival entries in this tier commonly carry tiered submission costs depending on film length and submission window.
Submissions are handled directly through the official festival site. No third-party platform is specified in the listing.
Terms worth reading
The page does not reproduce the full festival terms, so several points require direct verification with the organisers:
- Licensing and screening rights: festivals at this level routinely request a licence to screen, promote and archive submitted works. Confirm the scope of any rights grant before submitting, particularly whether it extends to promotional clips or online distribution.
- Eligibility windows: no completion date range for eligible films is stated in the listing. Some festivals restrict entries to works completed within a specific period.
- Notification timeline: no notification date is published. With the festival opening 12 November 2027, selections are likely communicated in late October or early November, but this is not confirmed.
The deadline shown on the aggregator listing is 17 October 2027, verified against the organiser's page on 10 September 2026. No cutoff time is published, so plan to submit by 16 October 2027 to avoid any last-minute platform issues.
For full rules, current fees and submission requirements, visit the AI Cinema Festival Cannes official site.
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