The Reply AI Film Festival, now in its third edition, has selected 10 finalists from more than 3,000 AI-generated short films submitted by creators in 76 countries. The winners will be announced on September 6 at an awards ceremony in Venice, held alongside the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. The competition, organized by Reply and Mastercard, focuses on short films produced using artificial intelligence tools, highlighting the growing role of generative video in independent filmmaking.
The festival serves as a meeting point for cinema and technology, drawing entries from filmmakers, visual artists, and creative studios who rely on AI to overcome traditional production constraints. This year's theme, "Imaginatio Nova," invited participants to explore a new phase of imagination where human creativity and machine tools merge to create new visual languages.
Finalists and their AI tools
The ten finalists span animation, science fiction, and personal documentary, employing a range of generative video models. Tools like Runway, Kling, Veo, Seedance, Higgsfield, and Nano Banana feature prominently in the productions. Many filmmakers said that without these AI systems, their projects would have been impossible due to tight budgets, lack of crews, or the need for complex sets and visual effects.
For example, "Kev," a UK short about a blind man's daily life, used Midjourney, Kling, Veo 3, and ElevenLabs to create a deeply personal film that would have been too costly to produce with traditional methods. "Le Drip," an animated piece from Australian and US directors, relied on Flora and Seedance to achieve a painterly aesthetic in far less time than a single artist could manage. The dystopian Chinese short "Centenarian Kindergarten" used AI to reproduce aged skin without expensive prosthetics, while "Website," a speculative science fiction work, combined Veo 3, Runway, and Kling to build an interactive narrative experience.
The diversity of approaches reflects a wider shift: AI is no longer just a novelty but a practical tool for independent creators to realize ambitious visual storytelling. The finalists come from Canada, China, Italy, the UK, Spain, Australia, and the United States, among others.
Awards and jury
An international jury chaired by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores will select the winners. The panel includes Rob Minkoff (co-director of The Lion King), Catherine Hardwicke (director of Twilight), Jed Weintrob (30 Ninjas), Giacomo Mineo (VFX supervisor for Oppenheimer), and other film industry figures. The festival will award:
- Best Short Film - the top prize of the competition
- AI for Good Award - honors the short film that best interprets the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- Reply AI Studios Grand Prix - recognizes the project with the highest level of innovation and excellence in using AI across the creative process
- Community Award - decided by public vote on aiff.reply.com and WeShort until September 1
The awards ceremony will take place at the Match Point Arena on the Lido, with Sky Italia as media partner.
Why this matters for creatives
For artists, filmmakers, and content creators, the festival demonstrates that AI video generation tools are now capable of producing professional-grade short films. The finalists' works show that creators can bypass traditional financial and technical barriers-such as hiring large crews, building sets, or investing in costly CGI-by using generative models. This opens up new possibilities for independent storytellers who want to experiment with visual styles that were previously out of reach. As the AI for Creatives landscape expands, festivals like this provide a clear benchmark for what's achievable with accessible tools and a clear creative vision.
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