AI TALENTS
New York
An AI Film Festival in East Harlem. Built for the freaks, the basement auteurs, the kids who taught themselves Comfy at 3 a.m.
An AI Film Festival in East Harlem. Built for the freaks, the basement auteurs, the kids who taught themselves Comfy at 3 a.m.
Jazz spilled out of these windows. Salsa rewired the sidewalks.
Hip-hop got born a few stops uptown and graffiti turned the walls into galleries before anyone called them that.
Every wave of art that mattered in this city started with somebody nobody invited.
So yeah. This is exactly where new AI filmmakers belong.
The basement auteurs. The kids who taught themselves Comfy at 3 a.m. The painters who picked up a model and never looked back. The ad refugees, the music video heads, the meme-poets, the world-builders, the ones making stuff that doesn't fit anywhere yet.
Mix it, break it, layer it. We care about the result and the brain behind it. Not the logo. Bring work that couldn't exist two years ago. Bring work that has an artist behind the prompt.
Doors crack open early.
Small room on purpose. Closer to a loft party than a theater. Films roll in blocks of three or four, then we yank the creator on stage for a quick honest conversation.
No moderator. No cue cards. No "and how did you find your voice as a storyteller." Just how'd you make it, what broke, what stayed.
Collaborators. Ideas. A sharper read on where this thing is going. Maybe a film stuck in your head for a week.
Every prize goes to a person. Not a file.
The work that proves what this medium can actually do.
Strongest vision behind the film.
Sharpest writing, cleanest story.
Command of the image, frame after frame.
Rhythm, pacing, the cuts that hold it together.
Score, design, audio that defines the film.
Strongest animated or fully generative work.
Cleanest blend of live-action and generative craft.
One person. Start to finish. No hiding.
Most original pipeline or self-built rig.
First-time filmmaker who shows up fully formed.
Strongest film under three minutes.
Voted live, by the room.
Maya Okafor ● Brooklyn
Jules Park ● Queens
Diego Reyes ● East Harlem
Hiroki Tanaka ● LIC
Nina Soltani ● Bronx
Aja Williams ● Harlem
Kira Voss ● Bushwick
Tomás Andrade ● Astoria
Eva Marchetti ● Manhattan
404 Collective ● Online
Sam Brennan ● Greenpoint
Lila Chen ● DUMBO
Marcus Reeve ● Crown Heights
Anya Kuznetsova ● Brighton Beach
Owen Ferrari ● Inwood
30 seconds to 25 minutes. Short-shorts welcome. We mean it.
Submit your film + a short process log: tools, stages, what you made vs. what you generated. Not policing. Just on the record.
Eligible for everything except Best AI Film. Tag clearly.
Narrative, animation, music video, ad spec, doc, abstract, weird-internet-stuff that doesn't have a name yet.
You hold the rights to everything in your film, including training data that wasn't licensed or public domain. Not sure? Ask before you submit.
No deepfakes of real people without written consent. No exceptions.
List every contributor, human and tool. Hidden collaborators = pulled work.
One submission per creator/team per cycle.
We screen your film on July 16 and use a clip in our recap reel. That's it. You keep the rest.
Email info@aitalentsfest.com — we read everything.
Submissions live on FilmFreeway. We watch every single one.
filmfreeway.com/aitalentsny →