PROMPT FESTIVAL arrives in Toronto on July 26, 2026 for an evening dedicated to bold short-form cinema, emerging voices, and the kind of films that spark conversation long after the credits roll.

Set inside Black Box in Scarborough, the festival brings together filmmakers, artists, and curious audiences for a program built around fresh storytelling, unexpected perspectives, and genre-bending work from around the world. From visually striking experiments to emotionally sharp narratives, the selection celebrates cinema that feels immediate, playful, and alive.

PROMPT FESTIVAL is dedicated to creators exploring new cinematic language through artificial intelligence.

Any project where AI contributed creatively is eligible, whether through film generation, visual development, animation, voice work, sound design, editing assistance, script development, concept generation, poster creation, or hybrid workflows combining traditional filmmaking with AI tools.

Whether you are a filmmaker looking to connect, a creative seeking inspiration, or simply someone who loves discovering new work before everyone else, PROMPT FESTIVAL is a space to watch, meet, and exchange ideas in an intimate setting designed for discovery.

Black Box
1085 Bellamy Rd N, Scarborough, ON M1H 3C7, Canada
July 26, 2026

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What Submitters Receive

Submitting to PROMPT FESTIVAL means entering a curated showcase dedicated to the future of filmmaking.

This festival is built for creators pushing cinematic storytelling through artificial intelligence, whether fully AI-generated or hybrid in execution.

Selected Filmmakers Receive:

Official screening at PROMPT FESTIVAL Toronto
Official selection laurels
Access to the live festival event and filmmaker networking
Eligibility for all competition categories

Winners Receive:

Winner laurels
Official inclusion in the winners program
Category award recognition
Featured winner placement across festival communications
Priority consideration for future curated showcases

Awards & Prizes

- Best Prompt (Festival Grand Prize)

Best Prompt honors storytelling precision, conceptual clarity, and mastery of AI tools through minimal human intervention. The ideal benchmark is a finished short film generated from one prompt, or as close to that vision as possible.

This is not just a technical exercise. This is a new form of authorship.

- Best AI Short Film

Narrative shorts with AI in the pipeline.

- Best AI Director

Vision, control, and creative authorship.

- Best AI Storytelling

Screenplay, structure, narrative voice

- Best AI Cinematography

Composition and visual language of the frame.

- Best AI Editing

Rhythm, pacing, temporal craft.

- Best AI Sound Design

Audio, music, and sonic atmosphere.

- Best AI Animation

Animated work across techniques.

- Best AI Experimental Film

Non-narrative and structural experiments.

- Best AI Music Video

Music-driven AI visual work.

- Best AI Visual Innovation

Radically new visual language.

- Best Hybrid Film

AI mixed with live action and traditional craft.

- Best AI Character Creation

Synthetic actors and performance-driven work.

- Best AI Worldbuilding

Films defined by the world they construct.

- Audience Choice Award

Decided by audience vote on the night of the screening.

Rules & Terms

PROMPT FESTIVAL is dedicated exclusively to films involving artificial intelligence as part of the creative process.

Eligibility includes projects where AI was used in any meaningful creative capacity, including:

Image generation
Video generation
Animation
Screenplay development
Concept development
Voice generation
Sound design
Music generation
Editing assistance
Visual effects
Character creation
Poster creation
Hybrid AI / traditional workflows

If AI was used anywhere in the creative pipeline, the project qualifies.

This includes cases where AI was used only for supporting creative elements, such as poster creation, concept design, voice work, or visual enhancement.

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Submission Guidelines

Open to filmmakers worldwide
All genres accepted
Short films, experimental works, music videos, hybrid projects, and AI-native works are welcome
Non-English entries must include English subtitles
Previously released works are accepted
Entrants must own or control all rights to submitted material
Submission fees are non-refundable
Final programming decisions remain at festival discretion
Selected filmmakers must provide screening files in the requested format
By submitting, entrants grant permission for excerpts, stills, posters, and trailers to be used for festival promotion

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Best Prompt Category Rule

For consideration in Best Prompt, submitters should clearly explain their workflow.

Preference will be given to works created with the highest degree of prompt-driven execution and the least amount of manual intervention.

Projects created from a single prompt, or near-single-prompt workflow, will receive the strongest consideration.

If substantial manual intervention, traditional production, or extensive post-production shaped the final work, the project may remain eligible for other categories but may be less competitive for Best Prompt.