Austin AI Film Festival returns to a city split over AI

The second Austin AI Film Festival runs on October 16 and 17, 2026 at The Topher at Zach Theater, less than two weeks before a festival with a confusingly similar name in the same city, which says it accepts no films made with AI.

The festival, known as AAIFF, describes itself as the place where film fans and creators come to see how the year's best AI films were made. According to the Statesman, the first day brings keynotes, panels and demos, with sessions on brand and commercial work, building intellectual property, and directing. The second day carries fireside chats, screenings of finalist films and an awards presentation, which the festival's own site says closes the night. The speakers include founders and executives of companies working in AI-assisted filmmaking: Nik Kleverov of Native Foreign, Pinar Seyhan Demirdag of EVRN, Jason Fisher of StageRunner, Billy Boman of Boman Studios, Jason Zada of Secret Level and Adrienne Lahens of Infinite Studios among them. AAIFF is a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Not everyone in Austin reads that as progress. The Statesman reports that a post in the r/Austin community mocking the idea drew nearly 100 responses, and one commenter argued that typing descriptive sentences into a generative platform does not make someone an artist. At least one other defended it, writing that "AI will find its place." Nicole Shiro, a representative of Zach Theater, told the American-Statesman that the theater is aware of concerns raised by the community and takes that feedback seriously, and that the AI festival is a third-party rental of its facilities which Zach neither produces nor has creative involvement in.

The contrast is sharper 12 days later. The Austin Film Festival, which runs October 29 through November 5, contacted the Statesman to say it has adopted strict rules against the use of AI in submissions. According to the paper, AFF does not accept films with any use of AI software in the writing or creation of the film, and any film under consideration must disclose any use of AI in the finished film. "As we are known as 'The Writer's Festival,' we couldn't agree more that originality is vital," Kayla J. Williams said in a September 25 email to the Statesman. The paper reports that the festival also has an originality clause for all its screenplay, playwriting and fiction podcast competitions; the screenplay rules require scripts to be "the original work of the applicant(s)." Its position was stated after a former University of Texas film student wrote to the paper criticising the festival for a lax approach to AI.

So the same city now hosts one festival built on showing how AI films were made and another that says it will not admit them, less than two weeks apart.

AAIFF passes are on sale at austinaifilmfest.com. The Austin AI Film Festival had not responded to the Statesman's questions by the time the article was published.