John Gaeta’s Escape AI Launches Alternative Oscars For AI Filmmakers today at noon. Their awards show is today, Saturday, at 12 noon pacific time. Te first-ever Escape Awards, an AI-centric film festival and awards show, set one day before the Motion Picture Academy’s Oscars, will take place at noon pst. Instead of industry insiders, voting is exclusively done by Escape’s 200+ creators, forming a peer-driven recognition system. Unlike the Oscars, the public can attend online at Escape.ai.
Project Odyssey, a bi-annual AI filmmaking competition offering $78,000 in cash prizes, is put on by Lambda, Civitai, Kling, ElevenLabs, and Viggle, with a whos who of the generative ai models offering contestants an incredibly generous $800,000 in free tails from 47 industry sponsors. Winner of the first place prize in the narrative competition, One Last Wish, by Edmond Yang, is above. Key sponsors of Project Odyssesy include Hailuo MiniMax, Leonardo AI, and Curious Refuge. The winners, which included, were announced earlier this month Project Odyssey recieved a 4593 submissions totaling 190.4 hours from 2038 teams from 166 countries had access to more than $800,000 in free trials from over 47 industry sponsors, providing cutting-edge AI tools and resources to support their creative endeavors. The Winners will be celebrated at the Project Odyssey AI Film Gala, April 16th in San Francisco, where plans for the third edition of the AI Film Competition will be held.
Promise Acquires Curious Refuge To Build AI-Focused Creative Talent Pipeline. AI studio Promise acquires online film school Curious Refuge to create an AI filmmaking talent pipeline, focusing on artist-led generative AI storytelling.
Curious Refuge and Promise Announce AI Animation Contest. Curious Refuge and Promise Studios have launched the world’s first AI Animation Competition, inviting creators to showcase their skills for a chance to win up to $7,000 and pitch their film for a development deal. Submissions are open until March 28th at midnight PT. Public voting on curator-selected finalists will occur from April 3rd to April 8th, with winners announced on April 14th at noon PT. Prizes include cash awards, free course enrollment, and unique items like an AI Filmmaking Sweatshirt and personalized gifts. Judges will determine the top three winners, while the community will choose an Audience Favorite.
Google’s Veo 2, an AI-driven video generator, is priced at $0.50 per second, totaling $1,800 per hour. Launched in December 2024, Veo 2 transforms text prompts into high-quality videos up to 4K resolution. Primarily targeting filmmakers and studios, it offers features like genre specification and cinematic effects. While competitors like OpenAI’s Sora offer services at $20 to $200 monthly, Veo 2’s pricing suggests it’s designed for high-budget productions, who are going to be put off more by the ongoing challenges in maintaining consistency in complex scenes than by the price.
“ANPU” Reimagines Egyptian Myth in AI-Enhanced Tokyo Short Film. Filmmaker Yves Dalbiez blends mythology, AI, and real-world cinematography in ANPU, a short film that reimagines Anubis, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, as an unseen presence wandering modern Tokyo. The film culminates in a ritualistic dance at Shibuya Crossing, where Anpu silently judges the hearts of passersby. “Inspired by my childhood fascination with Egyptian mythology and the enigmatic power of gods with animal heads, this film explores the idea of invisible forces witnessing our world,” Dalbiez said. Shot over 25 days, ANPU fuses real-life footage with AI-driven tools like Viggle, Runway ML, Kling AI, and Mago Studio to create a distinctive, stylized aesthetic. The project, originally a technical experiment, has now evolved into a larger narrative universe with behind-the-scenes content planned.
Filmmaker Jas Black says his experimental short, Space Trash, explores themes of cosmic boredom, the universality of escapism, and “the chaotic beauty hidden in the digital noise of alien entertainment.” The Alien characters and background stills Flux. Viggle applied my dodgy dance moves to the aliens. Kling’s 1.6 model animated the backgrounds. The glitch effects are produced with Magic Music Visualiser. The video was upscaled with both ComfyUI animatediff, and Topaz video AI”.
What We’re Reading
Oscar Categories AI Will Blow Up
