Astana AI Film Festival awards $450,000 to a Latvian director

The first Astana AI Film Festival closed on October 3 with a $450,000 Grand Prix for Latvian filmmaker Nikolay Shestak and a field of 8,067 films from 125 countries.

The festival, branded AAIFF 2026, ran October 1 to 3 in Astana, Kazakhstan, as part of the AI & Digital Bridge 2026 technology forum. Organisers say the entry count makes it the largest international competition for AI-generated films. Aju Press reported the entry and country counts on October 6, and the festival's own site publishes the same totals with a country breakdown: the United States sent 1,396 films, Kazakhstan 829, India 705, China 479 and South Korea 355.

Shestak won for The First Honest Day. Euronews describes it as a film about how people's actions shape who they become, with bad deeds making the characters physically uglier and good deeds changing them. Euronews reports the prize as $450,000 and €401,000, and rounds the euro figure to €400,000 in its headline; both figures are the outlet's conversion. Qazinform gives the same $450,000 as about 201.5 million tenge.

He is a former actor who began directing about four years ago and started making films with AI two years ago, Qazinform reports. He told the agency he did not expect to win given the number and variety of entries, and said he will put the prize money into new films.

The prizes split eight ways

India's Abhik Banerjee took second place and $200,000 for SITARA, and Spain's Ernest Desumbila took third and $100,000 for Looking For Perseida, both figures per Euronews. Qazinform gives those two as about 89.5 million and 44.8 million tenge.

Five open-competition categories paid $50,000 each. Kazakhstan's Myrzakhan Zhumakhan won Best Character for the comedy It Was Just a Joke, China's 2xLabs won Best Story for The Last Span, Italy's Jacopo Zanetti won Best Visual for What's the Job?, Italy's Jacopo Reale won Best Direction for The Fracture and US filmmaker Zachary London won Best Concept for Pomegranate. Euronews and Qazinform both name the five.

The festival carried a total fund of $2 million, according to Kazakhstan Today and Aju Press. One million dollars went to prize money and $1 million to investment capital for promising AI teams and Kazakh film production. Euronews reports the prize money came from the Freedom Shapagat Corporate Foundation under Freedom Holding Corp.; Aju Press reports that selected teams are eligible to join Astana Hub, the state-backed technology park in the capital. The festival's own site lists the submission window as May 25 to September 7, 2026.

An international jury chose the winners: former UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, China Film Group's Ma Ping, Beijing Film Academy's Wang Hao, investor Balaji Srinivasan and BytePlus's Li Long, per Qazinform. Euronews lists the same five with a different name order and calls Long Li a BytePlus executive.

The 25 films in the final programme used more than 80 generative AI models between them across 19 genres, per Euronews. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who opened the festival, said "the barrier to entry has become significantly lower" for filmmakers and production crews, according to Euronews.

No second edition has been announced. The $1 million of investment capital is meant for AI teams to build with in Kazakhstan, and organisers have not said when it will be allocated.

The finalists' films screened free to the public at Chaplin Cinema in the MEGA Silk Way mall on October 2 and 3, Qazinform reports, and the festival's results and country breakdown are published at aaiff.ai.