A Face Only a Mother Could Love

The film that won the $50,000 Grand Prix at Runway's AIFF 2026. Robert Gaudette's short follows Marcel Dupont, a man whose face only a mother could love, and whose mother told him every morning for thirty-eight years that he was beautiful. Every evening he dances alone, one hand raised for a partner who isn't there, until one Halloween a woman sits down beside him in the park and does not leave. Every frame is prompted, with ElevenLabs voices and a Suno score.

The Grand Prix was only the start. It went on to win Best Picture at OMNI's Hyperphantasia awards, first place at the Reply AI Film Festival, the AI Film Grand Prize at KCAIF and Best AI Created Character at LAAIMPA. Established festivals with AI categories followed: Best AI Film at the New York International Film Awards and the Bangkok Movie Awards, Best AI-generated Short at Amsterdam New Cinema, Outstanding Achievement at IndieFEST and the Swedish International Film Festival, and the Eudaimonia Project's Blackwell Award for AI film. At the Portugal Indie Film Festival, a general festival, it won Best Director (Short Film) against traditionally made shorts. Twelve awards in one year, for a film that won as a film, not only as an AI film.