Astana AI Film Festival Draws 8,067 Entries

Kazakhstan's Astana AI Film Festival has received 8,067 film submissions from 125 countries and regions ahead of its October 1 to 3 program. The figures on the festival's official site show how rapidly interest in AI-assisted filmmaking has spread, although the number describes entries rather than completed films selected for screening. Audiences in Astana will see finalists on a large cinema screen as the festival moves from online submissions to an in-person event.

The United States currently leads the official submission table with 1,396 entries, followed by Kazakhstan with 829 and India with 705. China submitted 479 and South Korea 355. The festival's live figures differ from some earlier promotional counts; the organizer's current table is the basis for these numbers.

Almas Zhali, co-founder and chairman of the AAIFF board, said the response had demonstrated the speed at which AI filmmaking is developing, noting that the competition had moved from its launch stage to receiving more than 8,000 works from creators across 125 countries within only a few months.

Two competitions

The submitted works are divided between the festival’s main thematic competition, “The Future Worth Living In,” and an open competition covering a broad range of creative categories. A total of 3,138 films were submitted under the main theme, while another 4,929 works entered the open competition, with submissions spanning 19 genres.

Organizers say films can be entered in both competitions, so the total counts submissions rather than necessarily unique productions. The festival site reports more than 8,000 participating filmmakers and over 80,000 minutes of AI-generated film. Those figures give a sense of the scale of the selection task facing the jury, without indicating how many entries will reach the final program.

What visitors will see

The Astana AI Film Festival is scheduled to take place from October 1 to 3 in Astana as part of Kazakhstan’s wider AI-focused programme, bringing filmmakers, technology companies, investors and creative-industry professionals together around the emerging field of artificial intelligence filmmaking. For the first time, finalists will have an opportunity to present their AI-generated films on a large cinema screen before audiences in the Kazakh capital.

The official roadmap says submissions closed on September 7. An international selection process is due to lead to nominees and then awards at the October event. The published program includes screenings, conversations with filmmakers and jury members, and an awards ceremony. Detailed venue and attendance information is still to be announced, according to the festival's website.

Prizes and production funding

The festival's current website lists a $2 million total fund, split between $1 million in competition prizes and $1 million for investment in new AI productions. It describes nine awards across the thematic and open competitions. The separate production fund is intended to help promising creators and teams continue working after the festival, rather than only reward a finished submission. The organizer's current breakdown supersedes earlier publicity that gave a different funding total.

The growing scale of the festival reflects the broader transformation taking place across the creative sector as generative AI technologies become increasingly capable of producing video, sound, images, characters and other elements traditionally associated with conventional film production. Organizers estimate that participants collectively spent more than $4 million using AI production tools, illustrating the emergence of a commercial ecosystem around AI-assisted and AI-generated filmmaking.

The festival also highlights the potential for artificial intelligence to expand access to filmmaking for creators working outside the major global entertainment industries. Balaji Srinivasan has argued that falling production costs could create opportunities for smaller language communities to develop films and other forms of audiovisual content reflecting their own cultures and linguistic identities.

Kazakhstan has simultaneously been seeking to strengthen its wider position in artificial intelligence, digital innovation and creative industries. Earlier this year, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted the country’s ambitions to develop AI capabilities, strengthen digital infrastructure and support innovation, while the government has identified creative industries and emerging technologies as areas with potential for further development.

An industry still taking shape

The Astana AI Film Festival therefore represents more than a conventional film competition, bringing together cinema, artificial intelligence, technology investment and digital creativity at a time when the boundaries between filmmaking and generative technology are rapidly evolving. With thousands of submissions from across the world and an October programme featuring screenings, discussions, master classes and industry sessions, AAIFF 2026 is emerging as an international platform for creators exploring what the next generation of AI-powered cinema could look like.

The submitted work spans both an assigned theme and open subjects. The screenings will offer a more useful test of this new field than submission totals alone: audiences can assess storytelling, sound, images and how clearly the creators explain their process. Festival organizers have framed the event as a meeting place for film and technology, but the eventual shortlist and prize winners will show which work the jury considers most successful.