A Uruguayan Beach Town Will Screen the Best AI Short Films in May 2027, and Entry Is Open Now
Horizons IA in Punta del Este is accepting AI short films until 26 April 2027. Selected films screen free to the public on 26 May. No cash prize is published.
Punta del Este is better known for summer villas and Atlantic sunsets than for film festivals about artificial intelligence. In May 2027 that changes for a few days, when Horizons IA brings an international programme of AI-made short films to the Uruguayan resort town, with free admission for anyone who turns up.
The festival is now taking submissions through the Festhome platform, and the window is long. Entries opened on 27 July 2026 and stay open until 26 April 2027. The condition that matters most is in the festival's own wording: AI use must be central and decisive in the creative process. A film that uses a model to tidy up one shot will not fit. A film that could not exist without the tools will.
What you submit
There are three competition strands, each with its own length limit. Fiction and documentary films can run up to 10 minutes. Experimental films and music videos are capped at 5 minutes. Advertising work is capped at 2 minutes.
Several other conditions apply:
- The film must have been made after 1 January 2025.
- Any AI tool is permitted, so you are not tied to a sponsor's software.
- Entry is international, with no stated restriction by nationality or residence.
- Films that are not in Spanish must have Spanish subtitles embedded in the file itself, not supplied as a separate track.
The subtitle rule is the one most likely to catch out English-language entrants. Budget time for translation and a proper burn-in before you upload.
Entries go through the festival's Festhome page. The listing is also tracked on the AI Film Contests page for Horizons IA 2027.
Prize structure
The prize is not published. The listing describes the reward as festival selection and a screening, and states that no cash prize has been published. Treat this as a showcase opportunity, not a payday. If you are weighing it against competitions that offer credits or funding, the honest comparison is exposure in a Latin American festival setting against nothing guaranteed beyond a place in the programme.
The festival itself takes place on 26 May 2027 in Punta del Este, and admission is free for audiences.
Costs and terms worth reading
Entry is not free. The fee is tiered by date and starts at $12 for early submissions, which close on 8 January 2027. The price rises to $24 at the extended deadline of 26 April 2027. Submitting early halves the cost, which is the only real argument for finishing ahead of schedule.
The listing does not set out the festival's licence terms, screening rights or any rules on public disclosure of your work. Those details sit on the Festhome submission page and in the festival's regulations, and the summary here does not cover them. Before paying, read the rules for what the festival may do with your film, including online screening, promotional clips and archive use, and check whether the film must be withheld from other platforms in the run-up to May.
Practical notes
The published deadline is 26 April 2027, but no cutoff time or timezone is given. Submit with a day in hand, and do not plan to upload in the final hours, particularly with a subtitled file that may be large. The listing was last verified on 4 October 2026, so check the Festhome page for any change before you commit your fee.