The international film festival created with the help of artificial intelligence, Astana AI Film Festival (AAIFF 2026), will take place in Astana from October 1 to 3. The festival received 8,067 applications from 125 countries, and the total prize and investment fund will amount to 2 million US dollars.
AAIFF 2026 will be held as part of AI Month, as well as in the context of Kazakhstan's Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, and will be part of the AI & Digital Bridge 2026 event. Over three days in Astana, finalists of the competition, an international jury, and festival partners will gather. The final films will be shown to the audience free of charge on a large screen.
The United States was the leader in the number of submitted works, followed by Kazakhstan, which presented 829 productions. Among the ten leading countries are also India, China, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, and France.
Participants submitted short films lasting from three minutes. One of the key requirements of the competition is the use of the full AI format, where artificial intelligence must play a central role in the film creation process. All works undergo mandatory plagiarism checks.
The main competition program is dedicated to the theme 'The Future Worth Living For.' The prize fund for this section is 750,000 US dollars. The winner will receive 450,000 dollars, while authors of films placing second and third will receive 200,000 and 100,000 dollars, respectively.
An additional 250,000 dollars has been allocated for the open section. Five winners will receive 50,000 dollars each in the categories of 'Best Character,' 'Best Direction,' 'Best Visual Language,' 'Best Story,' and 'Best Concept.' The remaining million dollars will be directed towards investing in the most promising teams of the competition program.
The investment capital was provided by Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, former General Partner of the venture fund a16z, and founder of The Network School. When selecting teams, the quality of the work, level of execution, and potential in AI production will be taken into account. Recipients of the investment will register legal entities in Kazakhstan and become members of Astana Hub.
The international jury includes Audrey Azoulay, former Director-General of UNESCO and Minister of Culture of France, Ma Pin, Dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Research at the Chinese Film Group, Wang Hao, Deputy Dean of the Animation Faculty at the Beijing Film Academy, Balaji Srinivasan, and a representative from BytePlus.
BytePlus, a division of ByteDance, is the technology partner of the festival. As part of this partnership, 25 finalists will be provided with a one-year subscription to the DRAMAGIC content generation platform with a package of 60,000 credits.
Screenings of the competition works will begin on October 1 at the Chaplin cinema, and entry will be free with a pre-obtained ticket. The program also includes an opening ceremony and a gala dinner with the awarding of winners. The results of the competition will be announced on October 3 at the AI & Digital Bridge 2026 event.
The festival will be represented at the AI & Digital Bridge 2026 venue with a separate stand and a business program within the Creative Bridge track, dedicated to the influence of artificial intelligence on cinematography, music, fine arts, media, fashion, and storytelling. The AI & Digital Bridge 2026 forum is expected to gather over 20,000 participants and more than 100 technology companies. The forum program also includes business sessions, a technology exhibition, Startup Alley, the final stage of Astana Hub Battle, AI & Digital Bridge awards, demonstrations of AI and robotics solutions, as well as projects in creative industries and GameDev. A special program for heads of state bodies, international delegations, and representatives of the technology industry is planned for October 1, while the forum will be open to visitors by ticket on October 2–3.