NY • 6/11LA • 6/18

NYC Tickets LA Tickets

Ron Howard

AIFF 2026 New York Panel

A conversation with Ron Howard

Get NYC Tickets

AIFF 2026 New York Panel

A conversation with Ron Howard

Get NYC Tickets

Roger Avary, Gala Avary and Joel Kuwahara

AIFF 2026 Los Angeles Panel

A Conversation with Roger Avary and Gala Avary

AIFF 2026 Los Angeles Panel

A Conversation with Roger Avary and Gala Avary

Presenting Partners

Lionsgate

AIF 2026

info

Welcome to Runway’s fourth annual AI Festival. Originally established in 2022 with a focus on AI films, AIF has evolved into an interdisciplinary celebration of creatives experimenting at the forefront of art and technology. In Film, Design, New Media, Fashion, Advertising and Gaming.

Works showcased offer a glimpse at a new creative era. One made possible when today’s brightest creative minds are empowered with the tools of tomorrow.

Finalists of the various AIF tracks will be selected and showcased both virtually as well at gala screenings in NYC and LA. Winning submissions will be chosen by an esteemed panel of jurors and shown at partner festivals around the world.

Finalists

2026

Between Before and After

Between Before and After

Sifang Chen & Yang Wang

8:21

Kyoko sees a billboard of ex-lover Nagao and meets her again. Bound by a shared void rather than love, they circle a desire that never satisfies. As Nagao proposes a final plunge, reality intrudes, leaving a rupture where past and future become indistinguishable.

Costa Verde

Costa Verde

Léo Cannone & New Forest Film

11:35

Set in Corsica in the 90s, a young boy unboxes his first camera and documents a summer with his grandparents. What begins as play becomes a chronicle of small wonders and everyday magic. Costa Verde celebrates childhood nostalgia and family.

살(煞) - Divine Retribution

살(煞) - Divine Retribution

Minju Choi

7:39

In a Joseon-era village, the birth of a strange being unfolds a haunting story of a mother, a shaman and the villagers caught between fear and faith.

A Face Only A Mother Could Love

A Face Only A Mother Could Love

Robert Gaudette

7:50

Marcel Dupont, a man whose face only a mother could love, moves through Paris with complete confidence. The world moves away from him - he does not notice. This is a film about two lonely people, one act of courage and an accordion player who played exactly the right song at exactly the right moment.

Little Mes

Little Mes

Lucas Levitan & Fabián Jiménez

4:19

Who would you have become if you had taken a different path? Little Mes is an internal monologue built around that question, a constant unresolved doubt that follows a character through life.

POSTMAN

POSTMAN

YUUUKI

7:00

A short animation set in a near future where the culture of letters has vanished. In a world of efficiency, a protagonist finds an old letter and embarks on a journey to deliver it, rediscovering forgotten emotions that efficiency cannot measure.

Simiyu, Lies and Happiness

Simiyu, Lies and Happiness

John Kirk Kelly

3:34

A quiet portrait of the thoughts and moments that shape the lives of guests and workers connected to an inn in Australia around the early 1980s.

TAIRELL ISN'T REAL

TAIRELL ISN'T REAL

Dave Clark

5:04

A hyper-perfect influencer begins to unravel when the internet becomes convinced he isn't real, forcing him to confront a terrifying possibility: they might be right.

THE WELL

THE WELL

Dorian & Daniel

5:29

Once upon a time, in a snow-covered trailer park, the wolf is found dead at the bottom of a well. A tragic accident - or so they say. But when a sharp-witted hare starts to investigate, the truth shifts. What secrets lie buried below?

Where Knights Fall

Where Knights Fall

Mathery

3:35

In a tower at the edge of a far away kingdom, Rapunzel waits. At the foot of the tower, the ground is thick with the bodies of knights, princesses and princes, all those who came before, all those who tried and fell. Then he arrives. He doesn't climb, but he crawls and slides.

Jurors

2026

Roger Avary

Director, Oscar-winning screenwriter, and the CEO of General Cinema Dynamics

Jane Rosenthal

Founder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises

Bill Hensler

VP of Video, Audio and 3D at Adobe

Randall Bobbitt

Alternative Programming, Roku

Bruce Markoe

Head of Post & Image Capture at IMAX

Kia Brooks

Managing Director of The Gotham Film and Media Institute

Joel Kuwahara

Co-founder and former President of Production for Bento Box Entertainment

Richard Kerris

VP and GM of Media and Entertainment at NVIDIA

Cristobal Valenzuela

Co-founder and CEO of Runway

New York – Alice Tully Hall

Alice Tully Hall

Los Angeles – The Broad Stage Theater

The Broad Stage Theater

The Awards

2026

CATEGORY

Grand Prix / $50,000

Cash prize & 1,000,000 Runway credits

Gold / $15,000

Cash prize & 500,000 Runway credits

Silver / $10,000

Cash prize & 500,000 Runway credits

Honoree (x2) / $1,000

Cash prize & 100,000 Runway credits

Merit (x5) / $500

Cash prize & 100,000 Runway credits

Submission Criteria

2026

(1)

3-15 minutes in length.

(2)

Includes the use of generative video within the film.

(3)

Film must be a fully contained, linear narrative.

Submission Deadline: April 27th at 4:59 PM ET

Photo Gallery

NEW YORK 2025

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