First edition
Christina Duxa
Founder AI Filmfest Athens · Festival Director
November 6, 2026The Ellinikon Experience Centre, Athens
Myths Meet Machine
The first AI film festival in Greece
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About
AI FILMFEST ATHENS is Greece's first international festival dedicated exclusively to AI-generated and AI-assisted cinema. It brings together filmmakers, artists, technologists, and creative innovators from around the world to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the art of storytelling.
The festival showcases exceptional films, hosts inspiring talks and panel discussions, and creates a platform where creativity meets emerging technology. From experimental short films to groundbreaking visual narratives, AI FILMFEST ATHENS celebrates bold ideas, new voices, and the future of filmmaking.
Our mission is to foster an international community that encourages innovation, collaboration, and artistic excellence while positioning Athens as a leading destination for AI-driven creativity and cinematic innovation.
AI FILMFEST ATHENS was founded by Christina Duxa, with the vision of uniting the worlds of cinema, artificial intelligence and human creativity — shaping the future of storytelling.
Christina Duxa
Founder & Creative Director
Selected works screen at the Ellinikon Experience Centre — a landmark of innovation and culture in Athens.
Connect with technology-driven filmmakers, industry professionals and an audience that cares about the evolution of digital art.
The festival honours creators who use new technologies to advance creative vision, visual effects and experimental storytelling.
Myths Meet Machine
Greece gave the world its first myths — and with them, the foundations of storytelling itself. Nearly 2,800 years ago, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey established the earliest great narrative architecture of Western culture: the hero's journey, conflict, transformation, return. Shortly after, in the 4th century BC, Aristotle's Poetics offered the first systematic analysis of what makes a story work: structure, tension, catharsis. These principles still underpin every screenplay, every short film, every campaign made today.
The technology of shared storytelling has its roots here too. The Theatre of Epidaurus, built around 340 BC, is still considered an acoustic marvel; even in the back row of its 14,000 seats, a dropped coin on stage can be heard. It was, in essence, humanity's first “screening technology”: a place where hundreds of people experienced the same story at the same time.
AI-generated filmmaking stands at a similar point today: a new technology still searching for its grammar, its conventions, its own language, much as ancient theatre once did. That makes Athens the logical home for this festival, not out of nostalgia, but because it was here, thousands of years ago, that humanity first worked out what makes a story credible, universal, and powerful.
“Myths Meet Machine” is therefore more than a slogan. It's a thesis: the oldest tools of storytelling and the newest tools of image-making are ultimately grappling with the same question — how meaning emerges from technique.
Awards
Competitive · €1,000 cash prize
The festival's main award for the best AI film (3–15 minutes). The theme is open — from science fiction to drama or experimental film formats. Judged on the film's overall achievement: how compelling the story is, how deliberately AI was used as a creative tool, and how well the film works as a whole.
Competitive · €1,000 cash prize
This category honors the creative signature of directing in a film, regardless of the technical outcome. It's about how clearly and independently a cinematic vision was realized: bold choices in visual language, narrative perspective, and staging that make the film unmistakable.
Competitive · €1,000 cash prize
Here, the technical-artistic aspects of the film take priority: how convincingly do image, music, and dramaturgy come together in the film? Judged criteria include visual quality (image composition, AI effects, color aesthetics), music and sound design, as well as the pacing and timing of the cinematic narrative.
Competitive · €1,000 cash prize
This category is the direct realization of the festival's motto “Myths Meet Machine” in film. We're looking for films that bridge antiquity and the present, whether through a cinematic retelling of a Greek myth, connecting ancient history with modern film technology, or a cinematic portrayal of how a narrative has evolved from then to now.
Trophy + partner tool credits
For AI films in the field of product advertising from the areas of architecture and product design — an advertising film produced entirely or predominantly with AI tools. Judged on how convincingly the film uses AI for product presentation, spatial or design aesthetics, and persuasive selling power.
Honorary · Award trophy
This honor is awarded to a person from the AI film community (e.g., a content creator or influencer) who has made a significant contribution to education, for example through daily, easy-to-understand explanations of AI film tools, practical tips, and programs that a broad audience can learn from and benefit from.
Call for Entries
One open category — AI Short Film: films of any genre between 3 and 15 minutes, fully AI-generated — all visuals and audio created with artificial intelligence — and completed after January 1, 2025. Any language is welcome; non-English films need English subtitles. Hybrid films with live-action footage are not accepted.
August 1, 2026
Submissions open
August 14, 2026
Earlybird deadline · €20
September 3, 2026
Regular deadline · €30
October 15, 2026
Late deadline · €45
October 19, 2026
Notifications
November 6, 2026
Festival & awards ceremony
Agenda
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
10:00 – 10:20 AM
Welcome & Introduction to the Festival Theme “Myths Meet Machine”
10:20 – 11:00 AM
Opening Keynote: AI & Creative Storytelling
11:00 – 11:40 AM
Expert Talk: The Production/Technology Perspective
11:40 AM – 12:00 PM
Break
12:00 – 12:50 PM
Workshop/Panel: “From Idea to AI Film” — Workflow, Tools, Creative Process
12:50 – 2:00 PM
Lunch Break
2:00 – 2:40 PM
International Perspective: Guest Speaker Talk
2:40 – 3:20 PM
Business Perspective & Branding in AI Film
3:20 – 3:40 PM
Break
3:40 – 4:30 PM
Panel: “The Future of AI Film” — Monetization, Ethics, Trends
4:30 – 5:15 PM
AI Short Film Screenings
5:15 – 6:00 PM
Closing Keynote: Future Outlook
7:30 PM – 11:00 PM
From 7:30 PM, we welcome guests to a personal get-together before the evening event officially begins. This is followed by the Awards Ceremony, presenting honors across the various categories. Afterward, interviews take place with the winners and guests of the evening. The evening concludes with a Cocktail Reception and Flying Buffet, where guests, speakers, and award winners can come together in a relaxed atmosphere.
November 6, 2026
€99
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Access to keynotes, panels & AI short film screenings.
€149
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM & 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM
Conference + Awards Ceremony, Cocktail Reception & Flying Buffet.
Venue
The perfect stage for “Myths Meet Machine”.
The Ellinikon Experience Centre sits at the heart of one of Europe's largest urban regeneration projects, on a former airport site on the Athens Riviera that is being transformed into one of the continent's most ambitious developments. The Centre is the visitor space that anticipates the birth of The Ellinikon, a real journey into the future of one of the largest and most ambitious urban regeneration projects in Europe. The building itself already makes a statement. It's housed inside a renovated aircraft hangar, a place where the past, Athens's aviation history that had gone quiet for years, meets a future that reimagines everything from scratch. That exact tension between old and new makes the venue ideal for a festival built around precisely that idea, “Myths Meet Machine.”
Inside, the Centre offers Europe's largest visitor centre, with 20 interactive experiences across 5 themed zones for all ages, from walkable glimpses of the future to technological installations showing how an entire city can be reimagined. For an AI film festival, this isn't just a random backdrop, it's an environment that speaks the same language as the festival itself. Both are grappling with the same question, how technology creates new ways of experiencing and telling stories.
The grounds themselves, about 75 acres with roughly 900 trees and 80,000 plants and several plazas, also offer a stunning outdoor setting for receptions, award nights, and networking under the open sky, set within one of the largest green spaces in Athens.
What makes this venue exceptional beyond Greece is that it belongs to a project seen as a benchmark not just nationally but across Europe. As one of Europe's largest urban regeneration projects, the development aims to become a model for integrated, sustainable living. No other venue in Greece combines architectural innovation, sustainable city planning, and cultural symbolism quite the same way. That is what makes the Ellinikon Experience Centre not just the best location in Greece, but one of the most extraordinary event venues in all of Europe, for a festival that brings myth and machine together.
Talks
EU Enterprise Partnerships — BytePlus
President & CEO — MANDYNAMIC
Content & Education Lead — Wonder Studios
AI Creator — AI Trendz Media
Filmmaker & Director — GRAiL
AI Filmmaker & Director — AI Filmmakers Berlin
Director General of Labour Relations — Ministry of Labour & Social Security
Press & Media
For press inquiries, interviews, and media collaborations related to AI Filmfest Athens 2026, please reach out to our PR partner, Beautiful People PR, led by Haris Sianidis. The team has been active in press relations, communications, and event management in Athens since 2008 and will be on hand throughout the festival.
Questions & Answers
AI Filmfest Athens is a new international film festival celebrating storytelling made with artificial intelligence. Taking place at The Ellinikon Experience Centre in Athens, Greece, we bring together filmmakers, AI artists, and creative pioneers to showcase the future of cinema.
Our 2026 theme is “Myths Meet Machine” — exploring the intersection of ancient narrative traditions and cutting-edge artificial intelligence. We welcome films that draw on mythology, legend, and timeless storytelling reimagined through AI.
A film in which all visual and audio content — footage, animation, characters, environments, and sound — is generated by artificial intelligence. AI-assisted editing, sequencing, and sound mixing of that AI-generated material is fine, but the underlying visuals and audio themselves must be fully AI-generated. Traditionally filmed live-action footage or non-AI visual assets are not permitted at any stage.
Submissions are handled through FilmFreeway. Visit our festival page, review the rules and categories, and submit your film along with the required entry fee before your chosen deadline.
Submitting earlier means a lower entry fee, so we recommend the Earlybird window if you can make it.
We accept short films between 3 and 15 minutes in runtime.
No. DCPs are not required — standard digital file submission is fine.
Not at all. AI Filmfest Athens is open to filmmakers worldwide. We’re proud to bring an international community of AI creators together in Athens.
Yes, student filmmakers are welcome to submit. There is no separate student category this year, but student work is judged on the same footing as all other entries.
Yes. Submitting your film does not transfer ownership. You retain full rights — you’re simply granting us permission to screen your work as part of the festival.
All official screenings and the Awards Ceremony take place at The Ellinikon Experience Centre, one of Athens’ premier venues for innovation and culture.
We’re nominating projects across six categories:
All official winners receive the AI Filmfest Athens Award Trophy, presented live at the Awards Ceremony. Our four competitive film categories each carry a €1,000 prize.
The Awards Ceremony takes place on November 6, 2026, at The Ellinikon Experience Centre in Athens, as the closing event of the festival.
Yes. Tickets to attend screenings and the festival are available separately from submissions — you don’t need to be a filmmaker in the lineup to join us.
Any AI tools are welcome — image and video generators, AI voice and sound tools, AI-assisted editing, and more. We care about the creative result, not which specific tools you used to get there.
Entry fees vary by deadline and category — earlier submissions cost less. Full pricing is listed on our FilmFreeway submission page.
Submissions must meet the following technical standards:
No DCP (Digital Cinema Package) is required.