Cairo is hosting an AI film festival, and the deadline is two weeks away
Screenings run 18 to 20 September at the Hilton Cairo Nile Maadi, with awards for direction, cinematography and responsible AI. Entries close 23 August.
Cairo, a city that has been making images since before most film industries existed, is opening a festival to AI cinema. Screenings run from 18 to 20 September 2026 at the Hilton Cairo Nile Maadi, and the entry deadline is 23 August 2026, which gives you a fortnight.
The award list is the interesting part: a Grand Prix Cairo, Best Human and AI Direction, Best AI Cinematography, and a Responsible AI Cinema Award. That third category is doing quiet work. Naming cinematography as its own award implies the festival expects entrants to have made deliberate choices about lens, light and movement rather than accepting whatever the model produced.
How it says it will judge
The festival states it judges on story, performance, craft control and emotional truth rather than technical demonstrations. Take that at face value and it changes what you would submit. A dazzling sixty seconds of impossible camera movement is a tech demo. A three-minute scene where a character wants something and does not get it is a film.
The Responsible AI Cinema Award is worth a thought too. Festivals are starting to ask how work was made and whose likenesses appear in it, and an award category is a gentle way of signalling that the question is being asked at all.
The honest caveats
This is a first-year festival, which means no track record on how well it runs, how visible the screenings are, or how the awards are received. The prize structure has not been published in the material we can see, so if you are entering for money rather than for a screening and a credential, find that out first.
We also could not confirm the entry fee or the submission route from the announcement material. Both are the kind of thing that sits on the official entry page, and both are worth checking before you plan around a 23 August deadline.
Who this suits
A two-week deadline suits work you have already made more than work you are about to start. If you have a finished short sitting on a drive that nobody has seen, a first-year festival with named craft categories is a low-cost way to put it in front of a jury. If you are starting from scratch, Cairo is probably not the one to sprint for, but the Higgsfield festival deadline on 3 September gives you the same work a longer runway.
Details compiled from aifilmcontests.com, which tracks open AI film competitions. Confirm dates, fees and the submission route on the festival's official page before entering.