Over 8,000 films from 125 countries are vying for awards at the Astana AI Film Festival, which will be held in the Kazakh capital. The competition spans 19 genres, from science fiction and animation to drama and comedy. The entries vary in length, with some running for one and a half minutes and others exceeding four hours. Their combined running time surpasses 100,000 minutes. The largest number of submissions came from the U.S., Kazakhstan, India, China, and the Republic of Korea. Over 40% of the films focus on the competition’s main theme: «The Future Worth Living In.» To create their films, emerging directors, independent teams, and professionals from the AI creative industry used more than 80 generative models, including Suno AI, Kling AI, GPT Image, and ElevenLabs. The organizers are now selecting the strongest entries. In October, films by the finalists will be presented to audiences on the big screen for the first time at a cinema in Astana.
«One of our main goals is to put Astana and our country on the map of the world’s AI-advanced nations and, in this way, promote Kazakhstan internationally. As you know, the Head of State has declared 2026 the Year of Artificial Intelligence. And overall, there is such a creative AI environment in the country, so it was much easier for us to promote our initiatives. The Astana AI Film Fest is just the beginning. We are planning many more AI competitions in other fields as well,» noted Almas Zhali, co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Astana AI Film Festival.
The AAIFF prize fund has increased to $2 million. The first $1 million will be awarded to the competition winners. Entrepreneur and investor Balaji S. Srinivasan has allocated another $1 million to support promising AI teams. The funding will enable filmmakers to continue working on their films and further develop their projects from Kazakhstan. The main requirement is registration with Astana Hub. The investor explained why he sees Kazakhstan as a country with significant potential for the development of the modern film industry.
«Kazakhstan also has some of the lowest energy costs in the world. It’s very pro-AI. It’s pro-crypto. It’s pro-immigration, skilled immigration. And it’s an internet-first country. It wants to be, as the President said, one of the world’s first digital states. So, the entire 20th century infrastructure that was in the way of distribution or monetization or production or anything like that, gone. It’s all internet-first, and I think this will be an internet-first Hollywood,» shared Balaji S. Srinivasan, investor, the U.S.
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