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An empty neighbourhood cinema. A large green screen in place of the film screen, a worker on a ladder fixing it. Someone sits with their back to us, feet on the seat in front, waiting for it to start.

Five sections
to
fill
the screen.

25-27 February 2027 Naples. Provisional dates.

Generated. GPT image.

Submit your filmSubmissions coming soon

The WAIFF Napoli competition has five sections, from the thirty-second commercial to the feature film. It is open to films made with artificial intelligence tools and to hybrid films, provided AI plays a significant role in the creative process.

Every section has its own screen, cut to the shape of its film.

  1. Test frame for a feature film, 2.39 format. A figure in a long coat carrying a suitcase walks through the snow of a mountain valley toward a distant house with one lit window, at the blue hour.

    Feature film

    Best AI Feature Film

    40 minutes or more

    Fiction, documentary, animation

    The widest screen. After forty minutes the spectacle wears off and all you have left is the story.

    Generated. GPT image.

  2. Test frame for a short film, 1.85 format. At night, in a car wash, blue and red brushes shake a car covered in foam. On the passenger seat sits a three-tier wedding cake, and the driver, in a dark suit with a flower on the lapel, holds it still with both hands, dead serious, while water pours in through the open window.

    Short film

    Best AI Short Film

    3 to under 40 minutes

    One story, and knowing where it ends.

    Generated. GPT image.

  3. Test frame for a vertical microdrama, 9 by 16 format. At night, at the door of a flat, someone soaked by the rain opens a ring box. On the other side, the person who opened the door, in a bathrobe with a towel on their head, puts a hand to their chest. Down the corridor someone is peeking.

    Microdrama

    Best AI Micro Series

    Vertical 9:16, 4 to 6 episodes, 30 seconds to under 3 minutes per episode

    Here the screen turns vertical. A series of very short episodes that fits in one hand and has to keep you there for the next one.

    Generated. GPT image.

  4. Test frame for a stop motion short, 4 by 3 format. At night, at the top of a wooden ladder, a plasticine repairman in work overalls trowels plaster into the crack of a paper moon hanging from a thread. Below, the roofs of a cardboard town with a few lit windows.

    Animated short film

    Best Animation Short Film

    3 to under 40 minutes

    Here the trick shows from the first frame, and people still cry.

    Generated. GPT image.

  5. Test frame for a commercial, 16 by 9 format. An advert for a drinking glass. A hand catches it a few centimetres above the terracotta floor, and the water that flew out hangs above it in an arc of drops.

    Commercials and branded content

    Best AI Advertising & Branded Content

    30 seconds to 5 minutes

    The film that interrupts something, and has to earn it.

    Generated. GPT image.

  6. €10 per film

    Each film is entered separately and pays its own fee.

    These are the running times announced to date. The only format required so far is 9:16 for the microdrama. Full rules will come with the WAIFF Napoli rules.

What the jury looks at

We reward the films and the people who made them. Every film is judged on four criteria.

  1. 1 Overall quality of the film
  2. 2 Integration of AI
  3. 3 Storytelling and emotional impact
  4. 4 Technical and aesthetic quality

Only one of them is about AI. Any film jury would use the other three.

Every submission includes a production journal, the document where a film says how the tools were used. That's where the jury sees the hand of the person whose name is on it.

How the production journal works

Who judges

Five empty wooden chairs in a row on a stage, in front of a green screen. Next to each chair, on the floor, a glass of water.

Generated. GPT image.

Five people from film and advertising will judge the films. Names to be announced.

3

Finalists per section, the number announced to date. On closing night they are presented to the audience with their directors and producers, then the winner of each section is announced.

What you can win

One award for each of the five sections.

The films awarded in Naples will go on to the WAIFF Grand Finale at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, where they will be screened.

Prize money
to be announced
Follow the Road to Cannes

Is this for me?

At night, on the landing of an apartment stairwell, someone in a dressing gown and socks tries a line with a sheet of paper in hand, in front of a tall narrow green screen hung from the banister. In the foreground a hand holds a phone upright, the same scene on its screen.

Generated. GPT image.

I used artificial intelligence tools at every stage.
You're in the right place. You can submit it, as long as an author answers for it.
I shot live action and used AI at some stages.
That's a hybrid film and you can submit it, if AI plays a significant role in the creative process.
I only used AI for the subtitles.
That's unlikely to be enough. AI has to play a significant role in the creative process.
We're a studio or production company.
The press release opens the competition to directors, filmmakers, studios and production companies. Under the WAIFF 2027 rules, though, entries come from individuals (art. 3.1), and the award goes to the director or the film's representative (art. 3.4). You name your studio in the form. For WAIFF Napoli, the upcoming Naples rules will apply.
We're an agency or a brand.
Your section is Commercials and branded content. Under the WAIFF 2027 rules it covers real campaigns and spec work for products you invent (art. 2.4). For WAIFF Napoli, the upcoming Naples rules will apply.
I live outside Italy, or I'm under 18.
Eligibility by country and age will be set out in the WAIFF Napoli rules. In the WAIFF 2027 rules anyone can enter from any country, and under-18s need a parent's permission (art. 3.1).
My film is under 3 minutes and isn't a commercial.
With the running times announced to date it has no section, unless it's a microdrama in episodes. The WAIFF Napoli rules will have the final word.

Choose your section.

Submit your filmSubmissions coming soonTry the form

FAQ Production journal

Naples, 25-27 February 2027. Provisional dates.