Lumara Film Festival, a new independent festival for AI-made films presented by MoonPay and the AI platform Venice, announced its first slate on 16 October 2026: six finalists for the Grand Prize and Jury Selection, plus 16 nominees across five category awards. More than 700 films were submitted between late July and mid-September. Entry was free, open worldwide and not tied to any AI filmmaking tool.
The finalists are Black Thunder, Candy, Gabriel, Killabears – The Broadcast, Living with a Merman and Mianmian. The Grand Prize carries $32,000 and 3.2 million Venice AI credits, and the Jury Selection $20,000 and 2 million credits. The category awards cover experimental work (Terminal), films made with Venice (Serenissima), pieces under two minutes (Get Shorty), children's and young-adult work (Mouse) and finance or crypto satire (Rekt), each worth $8,000 to $12,000 plus credits.
The jury includes AI film creators such as Gossip Goblin, Voidstomper and Heavy Pulp, alongside Chris White, an executive producer on A24's Backrooms, and streamer FaZe Banks. Entries are judged on the strength of the idea, the quality of the storytelling and how well AI was used. The organisers say AI has given filmmakers a new creative language that opens doors that were previously shut to many.
Winners will be announced live at a screening on 26 October at the Roxy Hotel Cinema in New York. The evening includes an extended prologue of Gossip Goblin's Gods Don't Give Gifts, billed as the first AI film planned for a wide theatrical release, at the end of 2026. Winning films premiere online on X and YouTube on 27 October. One outlet's commentary reads such festivals as testing grounds for AI-native storytelling and for how disclosure and human craft get judged.