Make a Christmas short with AI tools and it could air live on national cable television on 12 December
Cue Film Fest's first holiday edition is free to enter, takes AI shorts and music videos of two to six minutes, and screens finalists live on AFRO TV and NOW TV. Entries close 20 November 2026.
A Christmas film made with generative tools can go further than a festival laptop screening this year. The finalists in Cue Film Fest's first holiday edition will be shown live on AFRO TV, which sits on Comcast Xfinity channel 1623, and streamed on NOW TV on 12 December 2026. Winners are decided on air, by a mix of viewer voting and a jury.
The entry is free and open worldwide. You submit one Christmas-themed AI short film or AI music video, between two and six minutes long, and the closing date is 20 November 2026. The Best Film grand prize is announced last on the broadcast, so the evening has a built-in finale for whoever gets there. The details below come from the listing on AI Film Contests and the organiser's own site.
What you submit
The film must be Christmas or holiday themed and run between 2:00 and 6:00. It can be a short film or an AI music video. Any generative AI video, image or sound tool is allowed, so you are not tied to one platform.
The rule that will rule some people out is about construction. The film has to be made of multiple intentional shots shaped by your own edit. A single unedited AI-generated clip is not eligible. In practice that means a sequence of shots you have chosen, trimmed and cut together, with a visible hand in the pacing. A one-prompt clip, however polished, will not qualify.
Entries go through the organiser at cuefilmfest.com. Submissions opened on 5 October 2026.
Prize structure
There are four cash awards: Best Film, Best Image, Best Sound and Best AI Music Video. The amounts have not been published. The page says they are to be announced by category sponsors, and Best Film is marked as cash, amount to be announced. Treat the money as real but unknown for now, and do not budget around it.
The other prize is exposure. All finalists screen live on AFRO TV and stream on NOW TV on 12 December 2026, which the organiser describes as a national television premiere. The listing does not give audience figures, so judge the value of that for yourself.
Terms worth reading
Entry is free, which removes the usual cost barrier. The listing does not state what rights you grant by submitting, and it does not say whether the work will be shown publicly before the broadcast or kept available afterwards. A broadcast and streaming programme almost certainly needs some licence to show finalist films, so check the official rules on the organiser's site before you upload, particularly the clauses on broadcast, streaming and promotional use.
The listing also does not explain how the viewer vote and the jury are weighted, or how finalists are chosen from the entries. A live public vote tends to favour films with an audience ready to rally behind them, so it is worth thinking about how you might reach viewers if you reach the broadcast.
The deadline is 20 November 2026, and no cutoff time or timezone is published on the listing. Submit at least a day early and confirm the details on the official site, since the listing's tracker was last verified on 10 October 2026.