Poland's first AI film festival will carve your trophy from a UNESCO salt mine
BIAIFF screens up to 15 selected films at a real cinema in Bochnia, backed by the city itself. A $2,500 prize pool, a Grand Prix statuette hand-carved from rock salt, and a 15 August deadline.
The Bochnia International AI Film Festival has the most distinctive prize on the AI film circuit: the Grand Prix winner receives a statuette hand-carved from a solid block of rock salt out of the Bochnia Salt Mine, the oldest in Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Alongside it sits $1,200 in cash from a $2,500 total pool, and the whole thing happens on a real cinema screen. Entries close 15 August 2026.
BIAIFF is deliberately not another online-only contest. It runs with the official support of the City of Bochnia and the Bochnia Cultural Centre, which the organisers point to as the guarantee behind the festival: professional screenings at Regis Cinema, the only cinema in town, verified judging, and financing that exists before the entry fees do. On a circuit where new festivals appear weekly and some are little more than a laurels PDF, municipal backing is a real signal.
What selection gets you
Up to 15 films make the official selection and screen live at Regis Cinema on 17 September 2026. Every selected filmmaker receives official BIAIFF laurels and a certificate, with the awards on top: the Grand Prix for Best AI Film ($1,200 plus the salt trophy), Best AI Visual Artistry ($800), and further awards from the remaining pool.
Entering
Submissions run through FilmFreeway, with fees listed on the festival's page there. The final deadline is 15 August 2026, with the ceremony a month later on 17 September.
For European AI filmmakers especially, this is a cheap, credible way to get work on an actual cinema screen in front of an audience, with institutional backing behind the judging. The trophy is the kind of thing you keep on a shelf for the rest of your career, assuming you keep it somewhere dry.
Source: official FilmFreeway listing.