For 2027, Stafford Film Festival is turning its AI film award into four: AI Short Film, AI Animation, AI Music Video and AI Feature Film. While many festivals are closing the door on AI film, we are opening it wider, with clear rules that keep the contest fair for every filmmaker.
Why we are backing AI film
Filmmakers are already using generative tools to tell stories they could never have afforded to tell before. A writer with no crew can now put a world on screen. An animator working alone can finish a film in months rather than years. Many festivals have answered that by banning AI work outright, or by letting it in without saying so. We think both answers fail filmmakers.
Our view is simple: judge the film. Every change in film technology has arrived with warnings attached, from sound to colour to digital, and the work that lasts is the work with something to say. AI does not excuse a film from being about something, and it does not disqualify it either.
Filmmakers have answered too. Last season AI film was the largest single category we received, and in 2026 it drew the deepest field of the edition.
What AI film has already won here
We introduced Best AI Generated Film in 2025. The jury could not separate two films and named joint winners: Roope Rainisto’s Gorilla Story and Mark Wachholz’s Bound by the Brush. In 2026 the award went to Alex Naghavi’s Gentle, with six further films earning honourable mentions. Both years showed the same thing: the tools are new, but what makes a film work is not. Story, character and feeling still decide it.
Why one award is no longer enough
An AI generated short drama, an AI animated film, a music video and a feature length AI film are different things to make and different things to judge. Putting them in one category asked the jury to compare work with little in common. From 2027 each has its own award.
- AI Short Film
- Films under 60 minutes in which AI generates a substantial part of the image, sound or performance. Drama, documentary style, live action style or hybrid.
- AI Animation
- Animated or stylised films under 60 minutes in which AI generates a substantial part of the imagery.
- AI Music Video
- Music videos in which AI generates a substantial part of the image or sound.
- AI Feature Film
- Films over 60 minutes in which AI generates a substantial part of the image, sound or performance.
AI Animation has its own award because AI animation has become a craft in its own right, and the specialist AI film awards already recognise it separately. It deserves to be judged against work like it.
One honest declaration
Every film entered for 2027, in any category, declares its use of AI at one of three levels.
- No AI. No AI was used in making the film.
- AI Assisted. AI was used for technical support only: spelling, grammar, formatting, research, audio cleanup, upscaling or colour correction. These films enter the main categories as normal.
- AI Generated. AI produced any part of the story, script, images, video, voice, performance or music. These films enter the AI categories.
Entrants in the AI categories also list the tools they used. That is not to rank the tools. It helps the jury understand how a film was made, and it helps other filmmakers learn from it.
Fair to every filmmaker
AI generated work competes only against AI generated work. A hand drawn animation will never go up against an AI generated one, and a film shot on location with a cast will never be judged against a film generated from prompts. Animated work that contains AI generated imagery enters AI Animation or AI Short Film, so our Animation award stays a home for human made animation.
That separation is what lets us be open to AI without being unfair to anyone. Traditional craft is protected, and AI filmmakers get a contest on their own terms, judged by the same jury with the same point based scoring as every other category.
Scripts stay human
Our screenwriting awards, Best Feature Script, Best Short Script and the new Best TV Pilot Script, accept No AI and AI Assisted work only, and writers confirm the script is their own. A script award is an award for writing. Where AI writes the words, there is no writer left to reward.
Rights come first
Being open to AI does not mean anything goes. Every entrant confirms they hold the rights to everything in their film, including any voice, likeness or music, and that no real person is shown or imitated without their permission. We check declarations, and an entry that has been declared wrongly can be disqualified.
An invitation to the companies building these tools
The AI awards are open to partners. If your company builds tools for filmmakers and would like to support these awards with prizes, software or sponsorship, we would like to hear from you at lets.talk@staffordfilmfestival.com.
Enter in 2027
All 21 categories for 2027, including the four AI awards, are on the categories page. Submissions open soon through FilmFreeway, and the full rules will be published with the call for entries. Join the newsletter below to hear the moment they open.
For the thinking behind our first AI award, read Why we created a Best AI Generated Film category.