Six AI film contests with money attached close by the end of October

PixVerse is putting $300,000 behind its pilot and screenplay tracks, and Slamdance is still taking AI-made films through a door that feeds a $25,000 fellowship.

The money in AI film does not sit in one place this autumn. Six competitions with real prizes attached close between the end of September and the end of October, and two of them ask for nothing but your time. Dates and fees below come from each organiser's own pages and from the AI film contest tracker at aifc.news, checked on September 23, 2026. Every figure here is as of that date, and deadlines move.

1. PixLight 2026, PixVerse: $300,000 pool, closes October 31

Track: a 3 to 20 minute genre pilot, or a 45 to 90 minute feature screenplay with a short pitch video
Grand prize: $100,000, with $50,000 and $20,000 for the next two places
Also: 20 pilot spotlight awards at $5,000 and 10 script awards at $3,000
Entry: free, worldwide, and the judges look for a Canvas workflow worth cloning
Deadline: October 31, 2026 at 23:59 UTC on PixVerse's contest page
The date has already moved once: PixVerse's page now carries "Deadline Extended · October 31, 2026" and its schedule shows the same date, so check the page before you submit.

2. Slamdance DIG: a $25,000 fellowship, closes October 6

Category: film inside Slamdance's Digital, Interactive and Gaming strand, with AI-driven work explicitly encouraged
Prize: selection, plus a path into the AGBO Fellowship, $25,000 selected personally by Anthony and Joe Russo, which came with a theatrical distribution deal with Utopia for the 2026 winner
Entry: paid, climbing by tier from $50 to $90
Deadline: October 6, 2026
Why it matters: Slamdance is the mainstream independent festival that launched Christopher Nolan and the Russo brothers, and its DIG door is the clearest signal that established festivals are reading AI work as film rather than as a demo.

3. We Are Human Festival, France: $12,000, closes September 30

Category: film and AI open call, 1 to 10 minutes
Prize: $12,000 in cash
Entry: free
Requirement: hybrid work, human and AI, not fully AI
Deadline: September 30, 2026

4. 2026 AI Horror Film Competition: $12,000, closes October 9

Runtime: no more than three minutes
Prize: $7,000, $3,000 and $2,000 for the top three, plus an audience favourite
Entry: free, worldwide
Requirements: AI used in every shot, Epidemic Sound for music and effects, original idea with no third-party IP
Deadline: October 9, 2026

5. FESTIAV 2026, Spain: $3,000, closes October 4

Runtime: up to 15 minutes, 16:9 at 1080p or better
Prize: $3,000 in cash
Entry: paid
Tooling: any AI tool
Deadline: October 4, 2026

6. AI Filmfest Athens: $4,000, closes October 15

Runtime: up to 10 minutes
Prize: $4,000 in cash
Entry: paid
Requirement: 100 percent AI-generated visuals and audio
Deadline: October 15, 2026

Two more close on September 30 without cash attached. The OPUS AI Film Awards in the UK takes work from one to seven minutes, and features up to 100 minutes, with AI required to play a substantive role. The AI Film Festival Japan wants 90 seconds to 15 minutes from any AI tool. Both charge entry fees and both return recognition rather than money.

If you enter one thing this month, enter PixLight, because the pool is ten times the size of anything else on this list and the screenplay track needs a document rather than a finished film. If you have a finished three-minute piece sitting on a drive, the horror competition is free and closes the same day.