Higgsfield awards $1,000,000 to 14 AI short films

Higgsfield named the 14 winners of its Global Film Festival on November 1, 2026, paying out a $1,000,000 prize pool. The company revealed the results in a YouTube premiere and listed them on the festival page.

The $500,000 first prize went to Listen to Meh, a dialogue-free comedy from Purga Studio in Argentina about a gaucho whose daily routine is interrupted by a sheep that keeps climbing onto the roof of his house. Second place and $200,000 went to Fukushima, from Cyprus. Third and $100,000 went to The Field Agent, from the United States. The Tortoise and the Hare, from South Korea, won the $100,000 Audience Choice award. Ten more films took $10,000 Honorable Mentions each: BALLAST, THE COAT, The Elevator, FIX, GIRLS / DEMONS, HUNGER, Lullaby, Morek, ROAR and Soulless. Higgsfield's rules allow one prize per film and one per team, so the top three placements took $800,000 between them.

What is the Higgsfield Global Film Festival?

Higgsfield is an AI video platform, and this was its own contest. Entrants had to build a film of at least three minutes entirely inside its Cinema Studio, with all music, voice and sound made by AI, and they could work solo or in a team of four. No paid plan was needed to enter. According to the festival page, 67,223 projects were started, 5,000 final films were submitted, and 55,628 people from 176 countries took part.

An independent jury picked the top three and the Honorable Mentions: Edwin Catmull, the Pixar co-founder and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios; cinematographer Phedon Papamichael; and directors Paul W. S. Anderson and Alex Proyas. Higgsfield's own creative team built the shortlist the jury judged, and the stated criteria were directing and storytelling, visual craft, sound and editing, and originality and concept. Audience Choice ran on a separate track, decided by the most valid votes from users on a paid plan.

The published numbers do not all agree. The results page counts 5,000 final films submitted, while the timeline tab says Higgsfield received 6,269 projects. The contest was also run and judged partly by Higgsfield itself, and every entry had to be generated on Higgsfield's tools, so the results measure what its own platform can produce.

Higgsfield also announced Higgsfield Talent, a creator program its chief executive says will spend more than $1,000,000 on top of the prize money, with cash grants and planned bootcamps in Los Angeles, New York, London, Lisbon, Bali, Tokyo and Seoul.

Every winning film is linked from the festival page, and every festival project stays open on Higgsfield with the prompts and generations behind it.

Winners were announced on November 1, 2026; the full list and each film's project page are on the Higgsfield festival page.

Festival card

• Festival: Higgsfield Global Film Festival
• Host: Higgsfield
• Prize pool: $1,000,000 across 14 winners
• Top prize: $500,000 to Listen to Meh (Purga Studio, Argentina)
• Jury: Edwin Catmull, Phedon Papamichael, Paul W. S. Anderson, Alex Proyas
• Entry rules: at least 3 minutes, generated in Cinema Studio, all audio AI-made
• Winners: https://higgsfield.ai/contests/higgsfield-global-film-festival?tab=winners