On October 21, the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) AI Film Season officially launched its call for entries. This year's AI Film Season is hosted by the HIIFF Organizing Committee, jointly initiated by the AI Art Innovation Alliance (AIAIA), the Science and Art Research Institute of Beijing Film Academy, and the Image and Technology Domain of the School of Design at Central Academy of Fine Arts. It is exclusively titled by LibTV, which also serves as the official designated entry collection platform, with strategic partnership support from Lenovo, innovation partnership from the Zhiyuan Lingxin platform, and produced by the LIFEGALA team. With the theme "Beyond Generation", the AI Film Season transcends the technical dimension of "generation" to return images to human experience, emotion, and imagination. This edition will adopt a "cinema-grade" standard across the board, focusing particularly on AI feature film creation, and seeking new works, new methods, and creators who can transform generative capabilities into cinematic expression.
The AI Film Section of the 7th HIIFF provided a platform for exchange between filmmakers and AI creators through film submissions, screenings, and creative practices. In this edition of the AI Film Season, we will further explore and integrate AI into actual filmmaking and film and television production.
What does it take to go from generating a single shot to completing an entire film? As AI generation gradually becomes a foundational capability in film and television creation, how can creators use their own experience, emotion, judgment, and imagination to tell original stories, explore cinematic language, and transform technological possibilities into genuine cinematic works—this is the core focus of this year's AI Film Season. Xie Limei, Chief Planner of the AI Film Season and Secretary-General of AIAIA (AI Art Innovation Alliance), explains: "We are not just looking for films made with AI; we hope to discover the people who are redefining cinema."In her view, the value of the new film industry in the AI era also needs to be reflected in specific works: whether creators can master the story and audio-visual language, whether the team can deliver consistently, and whether the work can connect with the audience.
This edition of the AI Film Season further focuses on professional creation, setting its sights on the AI film works themselves, and using "cinema-grade" as the common standard for evaluating works. As the core annual section of this year's AI Film Season, the call for entries is now open to creators and features four sections: "Cinema-Grade AI Feature Film", "Premium AI Series", "Cinema-Grade AI Short Film", and "AI Experimental Image".
Among them, the Cinema-Grade AI Feature Film will serve as the key observation sample this year. A feature film tests not merely the duration, but the complete capabilities of narrative, character, art, music, hybrid production, and team collaboration; it is also the closest to the standards of the traditional film industry. From the complete creation of feature films and series to the expressive exploration of short films and experimental images, the four sections share a common focus: how creators use AI to produce works with artistic expression and professional completion. This edition of the AI Film Season attempts to establish a set of industry coordinates for cinema within the realm of AI imagery.
In addition to the submission sections, this edition also sets up selection channels including the 2026 AI Film Season Selection, 2026 AI Film Director's Selection, 2026 AI Film Screenwriter's Selection, 2026 AI Film Digital Performance Selection, 2026 AI Film Image Selection, and 2026 AI Film Sound Selection. Outstanding works will be chosen from dimensions such as story and structure, originality and artistic expression, creative integration of AI, character and performance, world design and imagination, image editing and technical completion, and music and sound.
This edition of the AI Film Season plans to screen approximately 50 works, which will collectively compete for the 2026 Selections. The deadline for film submissions is November 15. The lineup will be announced in mid-to-late November, and the event will take place in Sanya in early December alongside the 8th HIIFF.
Official Film Submission Platform:
Click to enter the LibTV registration page for the AI Film Season official submission platform:www.liblib.tv/hiiff-aifilmseason
The "cinema-grade" standard must be practiced in creation and verified through professional discussion. This edition of the AI Film Season will partner with the Science and Art Research Institute of Beijing Film Academy to jointly releasethe 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival AI Film Season Report 2026.The report will present the actual capabilities of AI in film production and the areas yet to be broken through, focusing on a specific question: "Exactly what step has AI reached in professional filmmaking?" At the same time, we will partner with the Image and Technology Domain of the School of Design at Central Academy of Fine Arts to explore technology-driven image expression and artistic innovation. This domain encompasses three majors: Digital Media Art, Photography, and Art and Technology, emphasizing artistic experimentation and original exploration, and cultivating innovative talents with a Chinese cultural stance, a global vision, and social concern.
AI has lowered some technical barriers, but it has raised the artistic ones. As technical barriers lower, the importance of narrative, cinematic language, performance, and aesthetic accumulation does not decrease but rather rises, and the weight of core creativity in the competition among works will significantly increase. This is precisely the academic rationale for this edition of the AI Film Season adopting "cinema-grade" as its benchmark and focusing on feature films as the key observation point.
This AI Film Exhibition brings together partners from various fields to jointly explore how technology serves creators and promotes the integration of AI into actual filmmaking and production. LibTV is a video AI creation platform for professional creators and enterprises, aggregating leading domestic video generation models to build an Agent and Skill ecosystem, and has served tens of millions of professional creators and over a thousand film and television institutions. Lenovo, relying on a hybrid AI strategy, builds full-stack AI capabilities covering smart terminals, computing infrastructure, and agent solutions and services, empowering the upgrade of visual expression and viewing experiences in the AI era. Its multi-terminal ecosystem, centered on Tianxi AI, supports the creative conceptualization, content production, and cross-terminal collaboration of AI imagery. Lenovo's Wanquan Hybrid Token Factory provides flexible, efficient, secure, and cost-controllable computing supply for professional film and television production. Zhiyuan is dedicated to creating unlimited productivity with intelligent machines. This time, using the Zhiyuan AIMA Lingxin Platform as the exclusive embodied intelligence development platform for the AI Film Exhibition of this Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF), it explores the deep integration of AI imagery and embodied intelligence through content creation workshops, scenario-based interactions, and youth co-creation.
This AI Film Exhibition gathers multi-party forces from the art, technology, education, and creative communities, and will collaborate with One Way Space and Huxiu to co-create special programs. Meanwhile, it specially invites international ecosystem partners such as the New York Future Reality AI Film Festival, MIT AI Film Hackers, and the Venice Metaverse Exhibition, as well as communities including Experimental Programming, Aizhi Island, Mailand, and WAY TO AGI, and creative labels such as 43AI, CKAD AI LAB, Jimu Smart Learning, Certain Collective ART+TECH, and Ape Power as co-building partners. Together, they will build a cross-disciplinary and cross-regional exchange and collaboration platform to promote deep connections among AI image creation, academic exploration, and public participation.
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More partners are still being recruited. We look forward to fellow travelers joining us to jointly explore more possibilities of AI and film creation.
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In addition to the film call for entries, this AI Film Exhibition will also successively launch: "My Life Film — AI Investment Special Program", AI Film Breakdown Sessions/Salons, AI Film Agent Demo Day, AI Film GALA — AI Annual Ceremony, and other events. More content and participation methods will be revealed in subsequent announcements.
In the first complete year after the overall closure operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the festival uses the AI Film Exhibition as a focal point to build an exchange platform connecting film art and frontier technology, observing how AI evolves from a "generation tool" into a "film production system." Ultimately, this transformation must be answered by creation.
We welcome you to bring your works to participate in the AI Film Exhibition, join a creative exploration of AI film, and let your stories, imagination, and expressions be seen on the international stage.
