AVisualHistoryofAIFilm&Video
2019-2021
BeforetheDawn
Before text-to-video models existed, a few pioneers hacked together ways to make AI generate moving images. Frame by frame, zoom by zoom, prompt by prompt. These experiments laid the aesthetic and technical foundation for everything that followed.
ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com
Phillip Wang / NVIDIA StyleGAN
Generating Photorealistic Video with AI
Jon Warlick
Video Enhance AI v1
Topaz Labs
DALL-E Announced
OpenAI
VQGAN+CLIP Goes Viral
Katherine Crowson & Ryan Murdock
Disco Diffusion v1
Somnai & Katherine Crowson
2022
TheDawn
Research labs crack text-to-video. The outputs are blurry, short, and uncanny. Nobody takes it seriously yet, but early creators had a lot of fun experimenting.
Midjourney V1
Midjourney
Dreamcatching
Magdalena Bay
CogVideo
Tsinghua University / BAAI
Make-A-Video
Meta AI
Deforum Stable Diffusion
Deforum Community
Imagen Video
Google Brain
Topaz Video AI v3
Topaz Labs
Phenaki
Google Research
Midjourney V4
Midjourney
My Top AI Video Animations of 2022
enigmatic_e
2023
TheCambrianExplosion
Consumer tools arrive. Runway ships Gen-1 and Gen-2. ModelScope goes viral. The first AI film contests launch. The community forms.
The Dog & The Boy
Netflix Japan / WIT Studio
Runway Gen-1
Runway
Runway Gen-2
Runway
Midjourney V5
Midjourney
U.S. Copyright Office Launches Its AI Initiative
Digital Deity
Uncanny Harry
When CZ meets Schwarzenegger
Framer
"Will Smith Eating Spaghetti"
Reddit user chaindrop / ModelScope
Forest Scene
Timmy (IXITimmyIXI)
Property
Shane Willet
The Great Catspy
visiblemaker
NEMESIS
Shane Willet
Secret Invasion Opens with AI-Generated Credits
THE OLD LADY
Abel Art
Lost Marbles
Dale Williams (The Reel Robot)
SH*T!
Abel Art
Mechaniverse
Shane Willet
Capitol of Conformity
Aze Alter
Glitch
JeffSynthesized
NinjaPunk
Dave Clark
Ad Nuggets
Matan Cohen-Grumi
WGA Contract Sets the First Hollywood AI Rules
Stable Video Diffusion
Stability AI
Gen:48 — 1st Edition
Runway Studios
AIFF 2023 — First Runway AI Film Festival
Runway
Magnific AI
Javi López & Emilio Nicolás Riquelme.
The Cold Call
Uncanny Harry
Pika 1.0
Pika Labs
SAG-AFTRA Ratifies AI and Digital Replica Terms
Midjourney V6
Midjourney
2024
TheGreatConvergence
Quality explodes. Big tech companies enter the race. Filmmakers get serious. The model wars begin.
What if: The Takemura Files
FERA
Sora Preview
OpenAI
Air Head
Shy Kids
Gen:48 — 2nd Edition
Runway Studios
The Illusion of Innocence
Rich Klein
Our T2 Remake
Sway Molina & Nem Perez / Storyblocker Studios
YouTube Requires Disclosure for Synthetic Content
Late Night with the Devil Sparks a Backlash Over Three AI Stills
Cameron & Colin Cairnes / IFC Films
OpenAI Joins C2PA Steering Committee
Google DeepMind Expands SynthID to Video
Veo 1
Google DeepMind
AIFF 2024 — 2nd Runway AI Film Festival
Runway
Luma Dream Machine
Luma Labs
Kling 1.0
Kuaishou
Runway Gen-3 Alpha
Runway
LE VOYAGEUR
Abel Art
The Last Screenwriter — A Feature Written by ChatGPT
Peter Luisi
Copyright Office Report Part 1: Digital Replicas
EU AI Act Enters Into Force
Hailuo Video-01
MiniMax
Cat Olympics
Various creators
Battalion
Dave Clark
The Yolky Universe: Concerto for Drips & Dreams
Sway Molina
Kling 1.5
Kuaishou
Meta Announces Movie Gen
Meta
Adobe Firefly Video Model
Adobe
Gen:48 — 3rd Edition
Runway Studios
Whispers In The Dark
BLVCKL!GHT
Here Uses Metaphysic for Generative De-Aging
Robert Zemeckis / Metaphysic
Saving the Sun
Rich Klein
One Last Wish
Edmond Yang, Simon Valentine & Alex Holm
Coca-Cola AI Holiday Ad
Coca-Cola / Silverside AI / Secret Level / Wild Card
Gen:48 — 4th Edition
Runway Studios
Promise AI Studio Launches
Tencent Open-Sources HunyuanVideo
Tencent
The Thin Man The Gun The Hotpot
Jim HuiHui
Veo 2
Google DeepMind
Sora Public Launch
OpenAI
The Heist
Jason Zada
Kling 1.6
Kuaishou
Borrowing Time
Dave Clark
The Last Artist
Dustin Hollywood
What We Leave Behind
PJ Accetturo
2025
TheStudioEra
AI films go mainstream. IMAX screenings at Lincoln Center. Feature films get greenlit. Generative animation becomes its own art form.
Luma Ray2
Luma Labs
Kitsune
Henry Daubrez
Voice AI Lands in the Awards-Season Conversation
ALEX
Dale Williams (The Reel Robot)
Copyright Office Report Part 2: Copyrightability
Rapture
BLVCKL!GHT
One Fire Left
Dale Williams (The Reel Robot)
Gorbo's Swim Hole
BLVCKL!GHT
Promise AI Acquires Curious Refuge
Wan 2.1
Alibaba / Tongyi Lab
Cryptid Dating Game
BLVCKL!GHT
House of David Uses AI for 72 Shots
A Love Letter to LA
Paul Trillo, Paul Flores & Cuco
Runway Gen-4
Runway
Sad Steve's Taxidermy and Ice Cream
BLVCKL!GHT
LATE
Hal Watmough
Midjourney V7
Midjourney
Kling 2.0
Kuaishou
Reflection feat
FERA
Zyphorax TV Tape 1
Uno Particular
Wan 2.1-VACE
Alibaba / Tongyi Lab
Veo 3
Google DeepMind
Kling 2.1
Kuaishou
Bigfoot Vlogs Go Viral
@bigfootvlogs / Various creators
THE CLEANER
Dave Clark
Disney and Universal Sue Midjourney
ANCESTRA Premieres at Tribeca
Eliza McNitt / Primordial Soup
Electric Pink
Henry Daubrez
AIFF 2025 — Lincoln Center with IMAX
Runway
Seedance 1.0
ByteDance
Midjourney V1 Video Model
Midjourney
Hailuo 02
MiniMax
Moonvalley's Marey Hits General Availability
Moonvalley
Wan 2.2
Alibaba / Tongyi Lab
Cartoon Hero 1.0
Grok Imagine
xAI
Genie 3
Google DeepMind
Gen:48 — Aleph Edition
Runway Studios
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)
Google DeepMind
Steve Against the World
Rich Klein
Sora 2
OpenAI
Google Flow Sessions
Disney, NBCUniversal, and Warner Sue MiniMax over Hailuo
Luma Ray3
Luma Labs
Kling 2.5 Turbo
Kuaishou
DRIFT SPLIT
The Butcher's Brain
The BEST
Dale Williams (The Reel Robot)
Veo 3.1
Google DeepMind
Hailuo 2.3
MiniMax
All Heart Qualifies for Oscar with AI Animation
Eyes On You
Rich Klein
KYRA
MetaPuppet
Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)
Google DeepMind
Hopeless Steve
Framer
THE LAST PENCIL
The Butcher's Brain
Kling 2.6
Kuaishou
Seedance 1.5 Pro
ByteDance
Runway Gen-4.5
Runway
Wan 2.6
Alibaba / Tongyi Lab
Luma Ray3 Modify
Luma Labs
The Cleaner II - Swan Song
Dave Clark
2026
TheLongTail
The field stops being one big story and becomes hundreds of small ones. More models than anyone can track, prize money flowing to dozens of creators at once, lawsuits and copyright rulings reshaping the rules in real time, and the first viral moments that no longer need a press release to land.
Runway Widens AI Festival Beyond Film
Luma Ray3.14
Luma Labs
On This Day... 1776
Darren Aronofsky / Primordial Soup
Grok Imagine 1.0
xAI
Grok Imagine Ad Contest
Seedance 2.0
ByteDance
Kling 3.0
Kuaishou
Apex
The Dor Brothers
Overgrown
Henry Daubrez
Feral - Concept Trailer
Dale Williams (The Reel Robot)
Magnific Video Upscaler
Magnific AI
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
Google DeepMind
Junkyard King ep.0
Henry Daubrez
Costa Verde
Léo Cannone & New Forest Film
Dragon Blue
Theoretically Media (Tim Simmons)
Sora Shutdown Announced
OpenAI
The Patchwright
Gossip Goblin
A Face Only a Mother Could Love
Robert Gaudette
Sora App and Web Officially Shut Down
HappyHorse 1.0 Limited Beta
Alibaba Cloud
Sincitium
Guillermo Miranda — Contanimation
The Chronicles of Bone
Kavan the Kid × Magnific Originals
Pigeons Arguing
Marko Slavnic
Runway's Big Pitch Contest — Winners Revealed
Runway
Krea 2
Krea
PINOC
ViggleAI
TrueShort Raises $12M Led by Khosla Ventures
Mars: Beyond 2100
Aiden Guo
Gemini Omni
Google / Google DeepMind
Runway Aleph 2.0
Runway
An Artist
Abel Art
Project Luxo
Runway
The Rogue
J Felipe Orozco
Amazon MGM Studios & AWS Launch the GenAI Creators' Fund
Wonder Studios Launches Wonder TV
The Trials
Wonder Studios
Runway & Lionsgate Expand Partnership
AIFF 2026 — Runway's 4th Annual AI Film Festival
Runway
US Government Orders Suspension of Fable 5 & Mythos 5 Access
Seedance 2.5
ByteDance
Seedance 2.0 Gets Native 4K
ByteDance
Adobe to Acquire Topaz Labs
Seed Audio 1.0
ByteDance / BytePlus