Description? You've read a dozen of them this month. You already know what's coming. The grand opening line about cinema being reborn. The word “redefining.” Something about a journey. We're going to skip past all of that because you know we're going to skip past all of that, and we know you know, and pretending otherwise would be insulting to both of us.
So here are the actual facts.
On August 7, a festival called London AI Shorts is happening at Havelock Aura Studio. It is for short films made with AI. It will be small. It will be in London. It will end at some point, like all things. Ground control would like a word.
What it is not: a tech demo. A networking event in disguise. A panel about “the future of storytelling.” A room full of people in lanyards saying the word “ecosystem.” A pitch deck with a screen attached.
What it is: a screening. Real ones. In a real studio. With films that someone sat down and actually finished, instead of posting a 12-second teaser and moving on. The whole night is built around the fact that finishing a short film, even now, even with the tools, is still hard. We want to celebrate the people who do it. Heroes, just for one day. Or at least a Thursday evening in August.
What we want to see in your submissions:
shorts where someone clearly cared
shorts that know when to end
shorts with a feeling underneath the visuals
shorts that aren't trying to look like a trailer for a longer thing
shorts that earn their runtime, whatever the runtime is
shorts you'd actually rewatch
shorts where a real person decided every cut
shorts that turn and face the strange instead of running from it
What we are going to gently decline:
reels of generated shots with a needle drop on top
films that confuse “a vibe” with “a film”
anything that ends on a logo
anything where the most interesting thing about it is the tool used to make it
anything that's just another Tuesday afternoon
About the venue: Havelock Aura Studio is a working space in London. Not a cinema. Not a gallery. A studio. The screen is going to be set up properly. The chairs are going to be chairs. The room is going to feel lived in by the time we start, because that's what studios do.
About the night itself: doors early, films in waves, short conversations with the filmmakers between blocks, awards near the end. You can leave when you want. You can stay until they kick us out. Most people stay. There's a starman waiting in the sky, but he's not on the schedule.
You probably won't have your life changed. But you'll see ten or twelve films you wouldn't have seen otherwise, meet a few people doing the same weird thing as you, and walk back out into London with a slightly different idea of what's possible in eight minutes or less. We could be heroes. Probably won't be. But for a few hours, in a studio in London, that's close enough.
For short films, for short attention spans, for short careers that are just getting started.
Best AI Short Film
The one we'd push into everyone's hands. Top of the night.
Best AI Director
For the clearest authorial hand across the runtime.
Best AI Micro-Short (under 2 minutes)
For the shortest film that does the most.
Best AI Visual Craft
For the look, the world, the frame. The thing your eye stays on. Marble and circuit board, working as one.
Best AI Sound & Music
For audio that's actually mixed. Score, design, the works.
Best AI Writing
For the script, the voiceover, the words, the structure underneath it all.
