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Runway AI Festival (AIF 2026)

Runway · New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo

Deadline: Apr 27, 2026 (closed)
Entries opened: Jan 28, 2026
Event: Jun 11, 2026
Prize: Film track: $50,000 Grand Prix plus 1,000,000 Runway credits; $15,000 Gold; $10,000 Silver; two Honoree awards of $1,000; five Merit awards of $500
Entry fee: free
Tools: Any AI tool
Official site: aif.runwayml.com

Rules that matter

Film track: a 3 to 15 minute, fully contained linear narrative that includes generative video. The official rules say the AI video should use tools 'similar to' Runway's models, so other tools are allowed; entrants also describe the AI techniques used.

Good to know

Fourth annual edition; it now has six tracks (Film, Design, New Media, Fashion, Advertising, Gaming) and a third-party summary puts the total at $135,000+ across tracks. Entry period was January 28 to April 27, 2026. Gala screenings were in New York on June 11 and Los Angeles on June 18, 2026; a Tokyo event on July 30 was read from the organiser's site through an automated summary and should be rechecked. The organiser's site lists the ten winning films in order without printing the award next to each; the Grand Prix is confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, and the Gold, Silver and Honoree labels follow that order and a third-party summary. Canada is given for the Grand Prix winner because the Hollywood Reporter places him in Toronto; other countries are not published. Residents of some sanctioned countries are excluded by the rules. No 2027 call has been announced yet.

Who won

8 of these films are in our catalog and can be watched here, from the maker's own upload.

2026 edition

A Face Only A Mother Could Love by Robert Gaudette (Canada) Grand Prix
THE WELL by Dorian & Daniel Gold
Where Knights Fall by Mathery Silver
Costa Verde by Léo Cannone & New Forest Film Honoree
TAIRELL ISN'T REAL by Dave Clark Honoree

AI Film Festival 2025

Total Pixel Space by Jacob Adler · 9:28 Grand Prix
JAILBIRD by Andrew Salter · 2:49 Gold
ONE by Ricardo Villavicencio & Edward Saatchi · 6:18 Silver
Distance Between Two Points Of Me by Illya Dutsyk, Bogdan Nesvit, Anatolii Kasianov · 2:27 Honoree
More Tears Than Harm by Herinarivo Rakotomanana · 3:14 Honoree
Fragments Of Nowhere by Vallée Duhamel · 8:04 Merit
RŌHKI - A Million Trillion Pathways by Hachi and IO · 5:38 Merit
6000 Lies by Simon Rieth · 5:06 Merit
Editorial by Riccardo Fusetti · 3:28 Merit
Emergence by Maddie Hong · 3:35 Merit

Source: AIF Screening Room (the organiser's list of films by year)

AI Film Festival 2024

The organiser's page lists these ten films without an award tier.

Get Me Out / 囚われて by Daniel Antebi · 6:34
Pounamu by Samuel Schrag · 4:48
e^(i*π) + 1 = 0 by Junie Lau · 5:07
Where Do Grandmas Go When They Get Lost? by Léo Cannone · 2:27
L'éveil à la création / The dawn of creation by Carlo De Togni & Elena Sparacino · 7:32
Animitas by Emeric Leprince · 4:00
A Tree Once Grew Here by John Semerad & Dara Semerad · 7:00
Dear Mom by Johans Saldana Guadalupe & Katie Luo · 3:04
LAPSE by YZA Voku · 1:47
Separation by Rufus Dye-Montefiore, Luke Dye-Montefiore & Alice Boyd · 4:52