AIFF 2026 — Runway's 4th Annual AI Film Festival
Runway
A Face Only a Mother Could Love
Robert Gaudette
Grand Prix
Marcel Dupont, a man whose face only a mother could love, moves through Paris with complete confidence. The world moves away from him — he does not notice. A film about two lonely people, one act of courage, and an accordion player who played exactly the right song at exactly the right moment.
Runway's fourth annual AI Film Festival returns with gala screenings in two cities — June 11 at Alice Tully Hall in New York and June 18 at The Broad Stage in Los Angeles. AIFF has grown into the field's flagship showcase, celebrating creatives working at the frontier of art and technology across Film, Design, New Media, Fashion, Advertising, and Gaming. Ten film finalists were selected from submissions worldwide, with over $135,000 in prizes across all categories — including a $50,000 Grand Prix plus one million Runway credits. The 2026 jury spans industry leaders including Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary, Tribeca Enterprises CEO Jane Rosenthal, Bento Box's Joel Kuwahara, Runway co-founder Cristóbal Valenzuela, and representatives from Adobe, NVIDIA, Roku, IMAX, and The Gotham Film Institute. The $50,000 Grand Prix went to Robert Gaudette's “A Face Only a Mother Could Love”, with Dorian & Daniel's “The Well” taking Gold and Mathery's “Where Knights Fall” the Silver. The winning and honored films are collected below.