World AI Film Festival USA
For the American storyteller building with new tools.
Submit on FilmFreewayAn Open Letter WAIFF LA USA Los Angeles 2026
Dear Storyteller,
Are you still out there? Whether you’re a prompt wizard hyped over the newest LLM model or praying for the “AI bubble burst,” like it or not, AI has infiltrated the arts.
Creating an AI film is fascinating. And terrifying. The slop label is earned. With traditionalists at the stake, the AI-user witch hunt is real. A workforce we worked hard to be a part of is fading. The “adapt early or get left behind” pressure is real.
Or maybe you’ve been holding out. Resisting the slop. Skeptical that AI belongs anywhere near a story you’d want to tell. Wondering what it would even look like if you tried.
Or maybe you’re still inside the pipeline. Where AI is taboo at the office watercooler. But you tinker at home in candlelight. Waiting for the memo everyone can feel coming.
Or maybe you’ve never made a film at all. You write in a notebook and draw on napkins. You run tabletop campaigns. You tell stories at dinner that people remember a year later.
In the end, we want to tell stories. And it’s storytellers and their stories that shape how tools are used. Not the other way around.
About the Festival
The American chapter of a global circuit.
WAIFF LA USA is the United States edition of the World AI Film Festival, the international AI film competition based in France with annual editions around the world culminating in the Grand Finale at Cannes. It takes place October 10 and 11, 2026, in Los Angeles, the city where Hollywood, the Mecca of filmmaking, lives and where the future of moving images will be debated loudest.
We launched WAIFF in the US because the conversation about AI and filmmaking is too important to be left to the people who love AI uncritically or the people who refuse to engage with it at all. All deserve to share their stories.
We are not interested in declaring winners and losers in the AI vs tradition culture war. We do not know yet what AI filmmaking will become. Nobody knows. Storytellers will decide how AI is used.
The WAIFF USA Standards
Our line in the sand.
Five rules. We publish them before we ask for your film.
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Disclosure.
Every submission discloses the AI tools used, including generative image, video, voice, and audio systems. Content Credentials (C2PA) encouraged on final files.
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Likeness & Voice.
Every recognizable face and voice requires documented consent, consistent with right-of-publicity law and the SAG-AFTRA Digital Replica Rider. No unauthorized synthetic replicas of real people, living or deceased.
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Content Integrity.
Submissions must comply with US federal and state law. No non-consensual intimate imagery. No deepfakes that defame or depict real individuals without consent.
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Music & Clearance.
All music, footage, and third-party material cleared at sync, master, and mechanical levels, or generated from licensed sources. Training-data provenance is not a substitute for rights clearance.
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Human Authorship.
Every film has a named director or creative lead who takes authorial responsibility for the final work. AI is a tool in the filmmaker’s hands, not a replacement for the filmmaker.
No. 01
Live Action
Short Film
3 to 40 minutes
No. 02
Feature Film
40+ minutes
No. 03
Animated Short
3 to 40 minutes
No. 04
Documentary
5 to 120 minutes
No. 05
Vertical & Mobile
30 seconds to 3 minutes
No. 06
Music Video
1 to 10 minutes
No. 07
Advertisement
15 seconds to 3 minutes
No. 08
AR / VR / XR
Experience
3 to 10 minutes
No. 09
Gaming
3 to 10 minutes of gameplay
Flag Award
Best Student-
Submitted Work
Selected across all categories
Flag Award
Best Youth-
Submitted Work
Ages 13 to 18
Full rules, runtimes, and entry on FilmFreeway.
The Awards
Eleven trophies. Five to Cannes.
One Grand Prix.
Nine Category Winners plus two Flag Awards
(Best Student-Submitted Work and Best Youth-Submitted Work).
From the 11 winners, a Grand, Honorary, and Academic Jury of senior figures selects 5 works to advance to WAIFF Cannes 2027.
The only AI film competition in the world that feeds directly into a recognized global pipeline. To advance to Cannes, a winning work must meet the category criteria of WAIFF Cannes France.
From the 5 advancing to WAIFF Cannes, the Jury names a single WAIFF USA Grand Prix, announced last at the ceremony.
Sponsor prize packages and additional benefits, where available, will be posted at worldaifilmfestival.us at the time of selection.
The Circuit
One festival. Around the world.
Ten editions. Ten cities. One road to Cannes.
More cities to come. See the international roster →
Highlights from the circuit.
Submission Requirements.
WAIFF LA USA welcomes works from US-based creators. The following rules apply to all submissions.
Eligibility.
Open to creators 13 and older, US-based. Works must incorporate AI in their making. No premiere requirement. Online distribution, streaming releases, and prior festival screenings do not affect eligibility. Submitters under 18 need parental or guardian consent at submission.
Files.
HD 1920 by 1080 minimum, 4K 3840 by 2160 preferred. .mp4 or .mov file formats. Non-English works must include English subtitles (burnt-in or soft). Finalists may be asked to provide a DCP or Apple ProRes master for theatrical screening; specifications will be provided upon selection.
What to attach.
A representative still image (1920 by 1080 minimum), a 150-word synopsis, a 100-word director or creative-lead biography, and a complete credits list. Content Credentials (C2PA) encouraged on final files.
Production Journal.
Every submission must include a Production Journal identifying the AI tools used. Submissions missing a Production Journal will not be reviewed.
Fees are non-refundable. Jury decisions are final.
Full Terms and Conditions at /terms. By submitting, you agree to them.
Key Dates
- Submissions OpenMay 20, 2026
- Earlybird DeadlineJune 30, 2026
- Regular DeadlineJuly 31, 2026
- Late DeadlineAugust 20, 2026
- NotificationSeptember 15, 2026
- FestivalOctober 10-11, 2026
Submission Fees
- Earlybird$30$15
- Regular$45$25
- Late$60$35
Feature Film: +$5 each tier.
All deadlines and current fees verified live on FilmFreeway.
Founded by
Marco Landi
Former Chief Operating Officer of Apple, and part of the task force that brought Steve Jobs back to the company in 1997. Spent two decades at Texas Instruments, where he served as President of TI Asia and grew the business from $1 billion to over $4 billion in revenue, established TI’s first software development center in Bangalore, and received the European Quality Award. Engineering degree from the University of Bologna, executive MBA from INSEAD.
Get Involved
Set the stage for
storytellers building
with new tools.Set the stage for storytellers
building with new tools.
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01
Venue Partners
Host the room.
Host the room where American storytellers build with new tools, in front of the whole world. Theaters, studios, museums, and cultural institutions. The first rooms are remembered.
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02
Founding Partners + Sponsors
Stand at the front.
Stand at the front of American cinema’s new-tools frontier, on the global stage. For brands, technology companies, studios, and cultural institutions. Limited founding slots.
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03
The Jury
Help name the best.
Help select the year’s best American films built with evolving tools. Join a Grand, Honorary, and Academic Jury of senior figures who understand how the medium keeps reinventing itself.
Confirmations rolling.
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04
Journalists, Critics, Media
Cover the moment.
Be among the first to cover American filmmakers introducing AI into the cinema pipeline within a global circuit. Accreditation, interviews, embargoed announcements.