What happened
NovaScreen AI Film Festival in Vienna has published its rules for an edition on 9 October 2027. Its main category, Best AI Short Film, sits beside a Young Talent Award and an Audience Award, and every entry's visual world must be created with generative AI. Filmed or photographed footage, stock material and anything built in 3D software, drawn or traditionally animated are not permitted. Titles, credits and subtitles are exempt, editing, grading, compositing and effects may use any tool, and music, voice and sound may be generated, recorded or licensed.
Entrants must list the image tools, any guidance material such as sketches or motion recordings, and the source of the sound. Selected films may be asked for raw generations, prompts or project files. As of 3 November, the fee is €15 until 31 May 2027 and €25 until 31 July, with €9 for pupils, apprentices and students who can show proof.
Why it matters
The rules draw the line at restyling. Filmed material that has only been restyled, filtered or animated does not count as generated, which on the rules' wording leaves no route in for a hybrid short built on camera footage, however fully it is disclosed.
The rules also bar a recognisable real person's likeness or cloned voice without explicit, verifiable consent, including the maker's own, and bar any real minor, even as an AI likeness.
Still open
Submissions open in "early 2027", with no date given, and no deadline states a time zone. The German versions of the rules prevail over the English text.
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