AIShortFilmHub

Entry rules for AI-made films

Do you keep the rights to an AI festival entry?

At AIFJ, Bochnia, WAIFF in Cannes, the AI for Good Film Festival and Higgsfield's festival the entrant keeps copyright and grants a licence; AIFJ's and Higgsfield's are perpetual. Runway, Chroma, LTX's competition, T-AIFF, AI Cinema Festival NYC and the African festival have entrants warrant that they hold the rights. From 11 source pages, read 2026-09-25; no maker pays to be listed.

Festivals listed here, and the rest11 festivals are listed for this question; the other 14 are not listed on this page.AnswersRules answer it11 festivalsNot listed for thisquestion14 festivalsRegisterEight rules per festival
Fig. 1 Counted from the register on the reading day.
Festivals whose rules answer this, read 2026-09-25.
FestivalRuleWhat the rules say
African AI Film FestivalRightsEntrants must own or have secured all rights, including outside assets, music and likenesses
AI Cinema Festival NYCRightsRights to likeness, music, voice and datasets rest with the submitter
AI Film Festival JapanRightsRights stay with the entrant, who licenses screening and promotion to the committee
AI for Good Film FestivalRightsFilmmakers keep copyright and grant ITU permission to use the film for festival promotion, with credit
AI Shortest Film CompetitionRightsEntrants must own or hold rights to everything in the film, and allow the festival to share and screen it
Bochnia International AI Film FestivalRightsThe filmmaker keeps full copyright and licenses screening and short excerpts
Chroma AwardsRightsEntrants must hold full rights to grant the licence the rules require
Higgsfield Global Film FestivalRightsEntrants keep copyright and grant Higgsfield a perpetual, royalty-free licence
Runway AI FestivalRightsEntrants warrant they own the rights and can grant Runway rights to use the film
Turkey International AI Film FestivalRightsThe rights holder warrants the film is legal and compliant with copyright
World AI Film FestivalRightsEntrants keep copyright and grant the festival and its partners a licence

Inclusion rule. A festival is listed when its own rules state what the question asks. Order. Festivals in alphabetical order.

Keeping copyright and granting a licence go together. The licence decides where the organiser may show the film, for how long and whether it can be used to promote the organiser's own product.

The warranty cuts the other way: the entrant promises that every face, voice, song and image can be used, and carries the risk if one cannot. Runway's Gen:48 takes a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable licence to every entry.

1From the rules themselves

African AI Film Festival

The entrant must own or have secured all rights to the work, including third-party assets, music, and likenesses.

African AI Film Festival, home page

AI Cinema Festival NYC

Rights, likeness, music, voice and dataset permissions remain the responsibility of the submitter.

AI Cinema Festival NYC, rules and eligibility

AI Film Festival Japan

Intellectual property rights to the submitted works generally remain with the applicants.

AI Film Festival Japan, English site

AI for Good Film Festival

grant ITU permission to use their films for Festival-related promotion and activities, with credit to the filmmaker.

AI for Good Film Festival, ITU page

AI Shortest Film Competition

Make sure you own or have the rights to everything in your film – including visuals, music, and AI-generated content.

Forward Festival, AI Shortest Film Competition by LTX

Bochnia International AI Film Festival

The filmmaker retains full copyright to their submitted work.

BIAIFF, 2026 regulations (English)

Chroma Awards

You must have the full rights to grant the license and other rights that you grant to ElevenLabs in Section 9 (Intellectual Property) below.

Chroma Awards, official rules on Devpost

Higgsfield Global Film Festival

All copyright and other rights in your film remain with you, the author.

Higgsfield Global Film Festival, official rules

Runway AI Festival

you (or your Team) have the right to grant Sponsor the rights to use the Submission as set forth in these Official Rules

Runway AI Festival, official rules for film

Turkey International AI Film Festival

The rights holder warrants that the film is fully legal and compliant with copyright laws.

T-AIFF, official site

World AI Film Festival

candidates retain full copyright and intellectual property rights to their work.

World AI Film Festival, 2026 rules

What the entrant keeps or grants at every festival · Do AI film festivals accept films that are partly AI? · Which AI film festivals offer cash prizes?

2Producing the entry with AI

For an entrant reading “Do you keep the rights to an AI festival entry?”, this is what SceneMixer publishes about the film its pipeline hands over:

Downloads and the asset library follow your Music switch; a shared link always plays the version with the episode’s music.

SceneMixer, Background Music in an AI Short Drama: The Built-in Score — “Does the music carry into downloads, the library and shared links?” (read 2026-10-13)

The default for text stays the cheaper tier; Recommended is the badge on the tier the site suggests for hard episodes.

SceneMixer, Doubao Seed Evolving: the recommended text tier — “Is Recommended the same as default?” (read 2026-10-13)