How To Make an Award-Winning AI Short Film
By Jagger Waters
In this article, we take a look at the five most successful AI Films of 2024 to answer the question,’ What makes a successful AI short film?’ We dive into the techniques used in these successful stories and what sets them apart.
With AI filmmaking being such a new industry, it can be hard to determine what makes an AI short film successful. We analyzed the 5 most successful AI short films of 2024 to answer that exact question. By the end of this article, you’ll not only leave having seen what we are confident may be the best AI short films available for viewing, but you’ll also learn how to make an award-winning AI short film.
We hope you enjoy watching the spectacular films. :)
Best Tips for Creating an Award-Winning AI Short Film | 5 Spectacular AI Short Films
What makes a successful AI short film?
AI-enhanced videos are filling up social media timelines everywhere, especially after Runway’s recent release of Gen-3. Scroll through AI community threads on X and you’ll find thousands of short clips, ranging from terrifying monsters rising out of the sea to drone shots of hyper realistic city skylines.
Every few days a new tool or capability is announced, raising the stakes and setting the stage for AI filmmakers to transform their workflows and streamline ways to create faster and more efficiently.
Gazing at the swirling visual effects of Luma’s keyframes feature might be mesmerizing, and it’s easy to spend hours experimenting with the recently released “relight” feature in Magnific. However, a significant amount of AI video content is still limited to quick clips that hint at the possibility of a story, without fully committing to one.
So what does it actually take to bring an AI-powered video from a series of disconnected, visually compelling clips into a fully developed story?
To find out, I connected with five creators whose projects were screened in Tribeca’s Human Powered AI Shorts Program and at Runway AIFF this year, taking home accolades and awards for their work.
1. Be Creative with Your Workflow
In “Separation,” animators at Studio Gruff partnered with musician Alice Boyd to build a narrative around her original song. Alice developed her first EP “From The Understory” during an artist residency at the Eden Project, the world’s largest indoor rainforest.
“Separation” took home a “Merit Award” at Runway AIFF. To find out more about Studio Gruff head over to www.studiogruff.com or follow them at @studio_gruff. To learn more about Alice Boyd’s work, listen to her music on streaming platforms and subscribe to her newsletter at www.aliceboyd.info. Follow her on social media @aliceboydmusic.
To capture the sounds of each song, Alice spent a week in the Rainforest Biome using a hand-crafted Arduino device to convert plant conductivity data into musical notes. “Separation” brings together the human voice with electronic textures created from plants and field recordings. Studio Gruff co-founder Luke Dye-Montefiore says, “This exploration of the intersection of humans, plants and technology inspired us to use a mix of traditional and generative methods in the animation.”
The film starts with short bursts of light, igniting a call-and-response echo between sound and color. Even with its abstract beginning the narrative arc is crystal clear, giving the viewer a front row seat to observe consciousness emerging from light to basic shapes, into complex creatures that evolve and morph on screen.
An undeniable interconnectedness remains present, no matter how unrecognizable the life forms become. Described as an “epic journey through geological time,” the film explores how AI fits into our human narrative as another evolving lifeform.
Brothers and Studio Gruff co-founders Luke and Rufus have been making films since childhood. Both went on to work in stop-motion and hand drawn animation. Above all else, the pair are committed to using AI without compromising their vision and craft, always putting story and artistry first. Luke described their creative process: “We followed a traditional animation framework, using gen AI tools at each stage to speed up the process.
We start with hand sketched characters and environments, which we then digitalise and animate frame by frame. Once we have our chosen palettes and designs, we color and light with the help of generative AI, as well as using some interpolation to smooth animation.”
2. Don’t Forsake Traditional Filmmaking Techniques
Léo Cannone is a multifaceted artist with extensive experience ranging from graphic design, animation, illustration, painting, photography and filmmaking. His short film “Where Do Grandmas Go When They Get Lost?” feels like a piece of epic poetry in motion, a love note honoring our matriarchal ancestors.
“Where Do Grandmas Go When They Get Lost?” received the “Honoree Award” at AIFF. Follow Leo’s work at http://www.leocannone.com and @leo_cannone
The first moment of the film ignites a feeling of grief that gently softens into love. The grandmas, towering over wildlife and homes, feel like cinematic myths brought to life. While some grandmas transform into icebergs and trees, others become houses. Cannone’s creative story presents a comforting idea that our loved ones eventually fully surround us, becoming the literal structures that keep us safe.
In young actress Adèle Toret’s voice over, there is a sense of humility and a beautiful acceptance of death itself. Within the emotional narrative, Cannone’s personal influences Maurice Sendak (the writer and illustrator behind “Where the Wild Things Are”), children’s book author Claude Ponti, prolific filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, and the bedtime stories told by his parents and grandparents become clear.
Inspired by his own sketches and storyboards from fifteen years ago, Cannone revisited this original idea, never imagining that one day he could bring it to life with AI. For Cannone, introducing AI into his workflow was more of an abrupt transition than gradual process.
After experimenting with Midjourney and Runway, he immediately saw the possibilities AI held for filmmaking. He says, “Whether it’s made using AI, 3D animation, stop-motion, or traditional film, the medium doesn’t change the fundamental qualities that make a film, whether short or feature-length, effective. Ultimately, it’s the story and its execution that matter the most.”
His filmmaking process was fairly traditional, following a storyboard to image generation, and collaborating with composer Vincent Blanot to create the film’s score. After using Photoshop and After Effects, he finished the final editing process and color grading in DaVinci Resolve, integrating the voice over and sound effects.
Leo nearly missed the deadline for AIFF, managing to get his entry in during the final 24 hour submission window. While he was unable to attend the film festivals in person, he has received calls from people all over the world after the screenings. The exposure has been invaluable, even leading to a production deal to adapt “Where Do Grandmas Go When They Get Lost?” into a series.
When he showed his own grandmother the film, she told him she felt reassured knowing where she might go in the afterlife. As Leo described, “Hearing this from her made me feel that I had achieved something truly meaningful, more than any festival recognition could provide. That moment encapsulated the essence of the film for me.”
3. Art Direction is Key
“LAPSE” is a mysteriously powerful short film by artist YZA Voku, a synonym used by the Madrid-based creator. The black and white images are enveloped in movement, giving a silent-film era aesthetic that confidently stands out among the other films.
LAPSE was the "Best Craft" Winner at AI Short Film Competition 2nd edition GEN:48 and received the “Merit Award” at AIFF. Follow YZA Voku’s work at https://www.yzavoku.com/
It feels like an homage to the gritty, stop-motion style of nickelodeon films screened on old fashioned projectors, a stark contrast to the swirling, futuristic cyberpunk vibe of other AI art shared online.
Their work has a stunning, original aesthetic. Poetic stanzas like, “my words come from silence, from encounters with nothingness” erupt as the haunting images morph on screen. The film challenges the notion that loneliness is bad, giving us fleeting glimpses of both the past and future emerging from darkness.
Voku has a background in art direction, photography and filmmaking and now uses AI tools as a playground for creation and multidisciplinary experimentation. By using Midjourney, Photoshop, Runway Gen 2 and Davinci Resolve for video and Epidemic Sound and Elevenlabs for the voice over, LAPSE stands out as an intersection between traditional film and abstract art.
4. The Story is of Utmost Importance
In Junie Lau’s film “e^(i*π) + 1 = 0”, a retired mathematician ventures into the arts, creating a digital world of characters who become sentient. After his death, the characters begin to sense each other’s presence across time and space.
“e^(i*π) + 1 = 0” originally screened at the Sohu 25th Fashion Awards and won the “Silver Award” at AIFF. Follow Junie’s work at https://www.junielau.com and @junielaux on X and Instagram.
The atomic fabric that connects them hints at an eerie idea that perhaps there is a mathematical or scientific equation that explains our consciousness.
In a journey through time ranging from the 1960s to 2022, Junie’s characters burst with personality and their own unique aesthetic. She deliberately incorporated visual, mathematical sequences such as the Fibonacci sequence, magic squares, and Pascal's triangle as narrative markers for each of the characters.
Junie explains: “This narrative challenges us to ponder whether we, like the characters, can transcend the boundaries of time and space to grasp a higher truth. It confronts us with the unsettling possibility that life and matter may be inherently devoid of meaning.”
The film ends with unnerving magnitude and scale, as a natural landscape is smeared into light that twists and contorts into an abstract structure. It could be the inside of an atom or the middle of a galaxy. Wherever we are, it’s incomprehensible in size. This possibility that we ourselves make up the fabric of the universe triggers a profound, mysterious feeling.
By marrying philosophical theories about human identity with emotional storytelling, “e^(i*π) + 1 = 0” is a reminder that AI itself is a profoundly existential human creation. If we are making AI in our image by training it with all our knowledge of science and the visual arts, what wonders or horrors might we discover along the way?
As a director and production designer, Junie creates avant-garde visual narratives for global brands and celebrities. Her work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in the UK and featured in British Vogue magazine.
She continues to conduct research on AI, the metaverse, Web 3.0 and XR, while utilizing the most cutting edge technology in her media production workflow. Junie is a formidable force in the AI community, and receives extensive media coverage in Asia for her creative work.
5. AI is a Tool for Creatives but not a Replacement
“Animitas” is part photojournalist documentary and part experimental AI film. In 2020, Emeric Leprince traveled to Chile in a van as a tourist. Inspired by the haunting presence of these roadside animitas, or mausoleums honoring the dead, he created a photo report filled with history and emotions. Consumed by their beauty,
“Animitas” took home a “Merit Award” at AIFF. Learn more about Emeric’s work at Moite Moite: https://www.moitemoitestudio.com/ and @emeric_leprince
Leprince began taking detours and waiting until dusk to capture ideal shots. In a graveyard of car wrecks and crushed bicycles, he began to excavate personal human narratives.
The verbal narrative underscoring the film, voiced by actor Santiago Rodriguez Lira and accompanied by composer Victor Maitre’s music, reveals the story of souls trapped in a liminal space between existence and the afterlife. But instead of dwelling on the horror, Leprince’s photo series became a meditation on forgetfulness and our relationship with time, even after death.
After returning to his home in France he became frustrated, realizing that he could have made a documentary about the animitas instead. But his regret would quickly turn to inspiration as he discovered Runway’s capabilities for bringing realistic motion to still photographs.
With Photoshop, he expanded the original images he took in Chile, and brought them to life with Runway. Leprince’s film is masterful because the AI presence is nearly impossible to detect. In many of the shots, flecks of dust drift through the air and reflect off the natural sunlight. The end result is completely indistinguishable from reality. Without the use of drones or a dolly,
Leprince managed to achieve cinematic shots, even adding the natural motion of rain falling from the sky. In the final shot, a light flickers from beyond one of the animitas, suggesting the presence of life from the other side. Out of respect for the deceased, Leprince chose to alter the faces in shots with real photographs, preserving privacy for their families.
Leprince has experience working in fashion and advertising. Feeling limited by the traditional process, he embraced AI to achieve greater autonomy over his creative visions. Like many successful creators, he recognizes the most essential component of working with these tools: “For me, a film must first and foremost tell a story.
Technology should serve this story and the artistic direction. AI is just another tool. However, it’s an extremely powerful yet entirely imperfect tool. I believe we are only at the beginning. In a few years, we will be working on storyboards that we will give to AI to animate.”
So, what makes a successful AI short film?
At first glance, AI tools might appear to be a drastic departure from the early days of filmmaking, from hand-painted animation sequences meticulously arranged frame by frame, to the daring experiments that led to the first tracking shot. And yet, as our technology advances, the filmmaking process remains essentially the same.
Just like their predecessors, each of these creators started with an idea, followed their concept with a storyboard, brought that storyboard to life with motion, merged the frames together into a single story with editing tools, and orchestrated a soundscape to evoke an emotional response from the audience.
The personal stories behind these filmmakers’ work stands in stark contrast to the misguided assumption that AI is inherently void of meaning. But without our human influence, maybe it is.
Without emotional relatability, identifiable characters and a well-structured narrative, these films wouldn’t have earned their creators accolades, recognition and exciting professional traction.
So, how do you make an award-winning AI short film? As it turns out, the basics of storytelling remain the same. From our ancient myths, legends, ghost stories and religious texts to modern multi-million dollar film franchises and the emerging new media creations built with AI, the importance of having a strong, relatable character and a plot the audience can follow remains crucial to building a successful narrative.
Learn to Make an Award Winning AI Short Film
After watching all of those phenomenal AI short films it is hard not to feel inspired, right? I mean, the storytelling, the visuals, the animation. It is all so fun to watch. We are lucky to see spectacular AI short films and spec ads like these every single day in the Curious Refuge community.
Not only that, but our team worked around the clock to give feedback on assignments to help equip those who want to strengthen their AI Filmmaking skills.
We offer courses helping people grow their skills in AI Filmmaking and AI Advertising. We recently launched our brand new course called AI Documentary. If you’re interested in learning more, we highly recommend checking out our free course that can help you grow your skills.
After that, we would love for you to be apart one of our main sessions, but no pressure. :)
About the Author
Jagger Waters is a writer and producer in Los Angeles with 10 years of experience in original content development and production spanning from film, television, live events, VR/XR, social media and scripted podcasts. Jagger began embracing AI during the Hollywood writer’s strike last year and has since won several generative AI competitions, including Curious Refuge’s first AI eSports Tournament in Las Vegas, Machine Cinema’s Gen Battle Music Video Edition, and was on the winning team behind “Love At First Bite” at Cinema Synthetica’s 48 hour generative AI filmmaking competition.
