EuGFA New Frames 2026 — European Student AI Short Film Competition

About the Competition

New Frames invites students studying in Europe to submit original short films that use AI meaningfully in the creative or production process. Films may combine AI with live action, animation, 3D, visual effects, sound design or other filmmaking techniques.

Awards & Prizes

€500 — Grand Prize

The jury awards the Grand Prize to one film from any category. It considers storytelling, originality, artistic direction, execution and creative use of AI.

€300 — Best AI Filmmaking

The jury awards this prize for purposeful use of AI in filmmaking. Eligible work may use AI for world-building, image or video generation, characters, animation, visual effects, 3D, sound, music, post-production or rendering. The jury assesses what the tools contribute to the film. Films from all four categories are eligible.

€100 — Viewers’ Favourite

Awarded to the shortlisted film receiving the highest number of verified public votes.

Competition Categories

Entrants must select one primary category. Categories organise and showcase the films; they carry no separate cash prizes.

1. Sci-Fi & Fantasy Worlds

Science fiction, fantasy, mythology and other imagined worlds. Films may explore future societies, alternate realities, space, speculative technology, or original characters and environments.

2. Comedy

Comedy in any form, including satire, parody, absurdism, visual comedy and mockumentary. The jury assesses the humour and the film as a whole.

3. Drama & Human Stories

Films about people, relationships, identity, conflict or change. Stories may be fictional, semi-autobiographical or inspired by real experiences. Entrants may use AI in any part of the production that meets the competition's AI requirement.

4. Experimental & Visual Storytelling

Work that uses image, sound and movement in an experimental way. This category includes visual poetry, surreal film, animation, motion design, mixed media, music-driven work and abstract filmmaking. A conventional narrative is optional.

Rules & Terms

1. Eligibility

The competition is open to students aged 18 or older.

Entrants must currently be enrolled at a university, film school, art school, vocational school or other recognised educational institution located in an eligible European country.

For a winning entry, the lead entrant must provide a school-issued email address and verify access to it using a link or code before payment. Other team members will not be asked to provide one.

Entries may be submitted by an individual student or by a team of up to four students.

For a team entry, the lead entrant must confirm that every team member is at least 18 and has agreed to take part, to have their chosen public name and credit shown as described in these rules, and to grant EuGFA the screening and promotion licence in Section 15.

The lead entrant should share the competition Privacy Notice with every other team member before submitting their public name and role.

Faculty members and teachers may advise entrants but may not perform a substantial part of the submitted creative work. Professional actors, musicians, voice performers and other contributors may participate. The student entrant or team must carry out the principal creative work.

2. Competition Period

All dates and times use the Europe/Tallinn time zone.

Submission deadline: **30 October 2026 at 23:59**

Shortlist announced: **6 November 2026**

Public voting: **6–14 November 2026, inclusive**

Winners announced: **15 November 2026**

Late submissions will not be accepted.

3. Entry Fee

Entry is free.

4. Number of Entries

Each student or team may submit a maximum of one film.

A student may not participate as a principal team member in multiple entries.

5. Film Length

Films must run for 1–5 minutes. End credits may add up to 30 seconds.

6. Language

Films may be produced in any language.

Films containing significant dialogue in a language other than English must include English subtitles in the video. A separate subtitle file does not meet this requirement.

7. AI Use Is Mandatory

Every submitted film must use artificial intelligence as a meaningful part of the creative or production process.

AI may be used for one or more areas including:

• concept development
• pre-visualisation
• storyboarding
• image generation
• video generation
• character creation
• environment creation
• 3D asset creation
• animation
• motion capture
• visual effects
• voice generation
• voice transformation
• dubbing
• music generation
• sound generation
• editing
• post-production
• compositing
• rendering
• production workflow assistance

Entrants may combine AI with live action, animation, practical effects, VFX, virtual production, motion graphics, editing and other techniques. AI may contribute to a specific part of the work; it does not have to generate the whole film.

Simply using a general-purpose AI tool for spelling correction, administrative tasks, file organisation or other minor assistance does not satisfy the AI requirement.

8. AI Disclosure

In the Production & Technology Form, entrants must identify the main AI tools and models used and briefly explain where and how they were used. The jury assesses their contribution to the film. It does not award points for a particular platform, company or model.

9. Originality and Rights

The submitted film must be an original work created by the entrant or team.

Entrants are responsible for ensuring that they have the necessary rights, licences and permissions to submit and publicly screen the material used in their film.

Entrants confirm this when submitting. EuGFA does not require release forms to be uploaded with the entry.

This includes, where applicable:

• footage
• music
• sound recordings
• photographs
• performances
• voices
• stock assets
• 3D models
• textures
• fonts
• characters
• trademarks
• third-party creative material

Properly licensed stock material, asset libraries and production tools may be used.

Entrants are responsible for complying with the terms of service and licensing conditions of any AI tools, software or services used in their production.

Plagiarism, unauthorised copying or deliberate misrepresentation of how a film was created may result in disqualification.

10. Real People and AI-Generated Content

If a film contains a realistic AI-generated or materially AI-altered representation of a real identifiable person, the entrant must disclose this.

Entrants must have any permissions required for the use of another person's image, likeness or voice.

Non-consensual synthetic intimate imagery is prohibited.

11. Production & Technology Form

Every entrant must complete a short Production & Technology Form as part of the submission process.

The form records how entrants made their films.

Entrants may be asked about:

• software used
• AI tools
• AI models
• filmmaking applications
• 3D software
• render engines
• computer hardware
• GPU hardware
• available GPU memory
• system memory
• operating system
• local rendering
• school computing resources
• cloud computing
• render farms
• production time
• generation time
• technical bottlenecks

Entrants may also be asked about problems encountered during production, including:

• long rendering times
• slow generation
• insufficient GPU memory
• insufficient computing power
• crashes
• failed renders
• generation limits
• software compatibility
• character consistency
• visual consistency
• cloud setup
• storage
• file transfer
• cost
• access to school hardware
• production delays

Jurors will see this form to understand how the film was made and how AI contributed to it.

Judges will not favour entrants because they use particular hardware, AI tools, software, cloud services or expensive equipment.

EuGFA may analyse this information across the 2026 and later New Frames editions to study student filmmaking workflows, technology use and production challenges. It may publish combined findings that do not identify individual entrants.

EuGFA will not give individual form answers to outside researchers.

12. Judging

The jury scores eligible films using these criteria:

### Storytelling & Audience Impact — 30%

The jury considers how well the film holds attention and communicates its story, idea, emotion or experience.

### Originality & Creative Vision — 25%

The jury considers the film's idea and the filmmaker's creative point of view.

### Craft & Execution — 20%

The jury assesses visuals, editing, sound, animation, performance and other production elements.

### Creative Use of AI — 15%

The jury assesses the purpose and effect of the film's AI use.

### Overall Coherence & Artistic Intent — 10%

The jury assesses how well the film's elements work together and whether the finished film feels complete.

The number of AI tools used and the cost of production equipment do not affect the score by themselves.

All decisions of the jury are final.

13. Grand Prize

The jury selects the Grand Prize winner from all eligible entries, regardless of category, using the criteria in Section 12.

14. Viewers' Favourite

EuGFA will present every shortlisted film for viewing and public voting at eugfa.org/newframes from 6 to 14 November 2026, inclusive.

Each voter may cast one vote in the entire competition.

The eligible film receiving the highest number of verified public votes will receive the Viewers' Favourite Prize.

EuGFA reserves the right to remove:

• duplicate votes
• automated votes
• purchased votes
• fraudulent votes
• votes generated through manipulation of the voting system

The voting system may reject votes it identifies as duplicates or fraudulent without prior human review.

Where there is evidence of deliberate manipulation, an entry may be disqualified from the Viewers' Favourite award.

15. Screening and Promotional Rights

Entrants retain ownership of their films.

By submitting a film, entrants grant EuGFA a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to:

• screen the film as part of the competition
• display the film on competition websites or platforms
• publish shortlisted films in full on EuGFA's social media accounts
• present the film at competition-related events
• use still images from the film
• use a still or poster image submitted with the entry
• use the film title
• publish the short synopsis submitted with the entry
• use reasonable excerpts from the film
• identify and credit the filmmakers
• promote the current competition
• promote future editions of the competition

EuGFA may not independently sell or commercially license the entrant's film to a third party without separate permission.

EuGFA decides whether to continue publishing a film under this licence. The lead entrant may ask EuGFA to remove it; EuGFA will review the request in line with applicable law. If EuGFA removes a film from its public channels, it will also remove that film's public entry and result details.

16. Grounds for Disqualification

EuGFA may reject or disqualify an entry that:

• does not meet the eligibility requirements
• does not meaningfully use AI
• violates the competition rules
• infringes third-party rights
• contains unlawful material
• contains non-consensual intimate imagery
• deliberately misrepresents authorship
• deliberately provides false information about the production process
• manipulates public voting
• plagiarises another creator's work
• compromises the integrity of the competition

17. Prize Payments

Winners must provide information reasonably necessary to process payment and meet any tax or accounting obligations that apply to EuGFA.

EuGFA will pay each prize by SEPA bank transfer to the lead entrant's account at a bank in Europe. The account holder name must match the lead entrant's legal name. For a team entry, the team is responsible for dividing the prize among its members.

18. Privacy and Research

Personal information submitted to the competition will be processed in accordance with the competition's Privacy Notice.

The Privacy Notice will explain:

• what information is collected
• why the information is collected
• how it is used
• who may receive it
• how long it is retained
• the rights available to entrants

Information required to administer the competition will be distinguished from information collected for research.

Lead entrants may separately choose whether EuGFA can send them marketing messages. This choice is optional and does not affect eligibility or judging.

19. Changes to the Competition

EuGFA reserves the right to make reasonable changes to the competition where necessary.

EuGFA may suspend, postpone or cancel the competition if circumstances materially compromise its operation, fairness or integrity.

EuGFA will communicate significant changes to entrants where reasonably possible.

20. Organiser

The competition is organised by:

**European Generative Film Association MTÜ**

**Käspre tee 7, Tabasalu alevik, Harku vald, Harju maakond 76901**

**Estonia

Contact:

**info@eugfa.org**

Website:

**https://eugfa.org/newframes**

21. Governing Law

The competition is governed by the laws of:

Estonia

This does not affect any mandatory consumer, privacy or other legal rights that may apply to entrants under the laws of their country of residence.

Submission Checklist

Before submitting, entrants should make sure they have:

• created an original 1–5 minute short film
• used AI meaningfully during production
• selected one competition category
• included English subtitles where required
• uploaded a film still or poster image
• obtained the necessary rights and permissions
• disclosed the principal AI tools and models used
• completed the Production & Technology Form
• provided valid student information
• submitted the film before the deadline