AI Indie Valley is what happens when the newest tool in filmmaking turns up in the oldest company town on earth and books a bar instead of a theatre.

Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks. This is the Valley: over the hill from Hollywood, where the editors and colourists and mixers and grips actually live. Not the side of the hill with the premieres. The side with the parking.

That geography is the entire point. Everybody within a mile of this room has an opinion about what AI is doing to this business, and most of those opinions are not gentle. We are not going to stand on a stage and pretend otherwise. We are going to put the films up in a room with a bar in it, in front of people who make movies for a living, and let them say exactly what they think.

What we want is work where the machine did something real and a person still ran the show. Made without a greenlight, without an agent, without anyone's permission. If it exists because somebody had more nerve than money, it belongs on Ventura.

One night. Doors at five. Twenty-one and over. Bring the film you could not get anyone to pay for.

Awards & Prizes

1 Best AI Indie Short
2 Best Film Made Without Permission
3 Best Visual Work
4 Best AI Director
5 Best AI Editing
6 Best AI Score & Sound
7 Best AI Comedy
8 The Last Call Award (Audience Choice)

Rules & Terms

AI has to be in it, doing something.
Somewhere in the build - picture, motion, effects, voice, music, cut, script, or the idea itself - artificial intelligence has to have done actual work. How much is up to you. We are not counting percentages.

Nobody greenlit this.
Independently made, independently paid for. Studio-financed or studio-controlled work is not what this night is for.

Bring any genre.
Drama, comedy, horror, doc, animation, or something with no name yet. We do not care what shelf it goes on.

Length.
Shorts, under 30 minutes.

Subtitles.
Not in English? Send it with English subtitles.

You have to own it.
Every frame and every note on the soundtrack needs to be yours to hand over, model output included. Sort that out before you submit, not after you are selected.

Your work only.
Copied or infringing films get pulled, no argument.

How to enter.
Through FilmFreeway. Entry money does not come back. Multiple films are fine, one entry each.

We decide.
What plays and what wins is ours to call. If the entries push us somewhere unexpected, we will reshape the categories to match.

The room is 21+.
The screening is in a licensed bar. If your film is selected and you are coming, bring ID.