Reply AI Film Festival 2026 — Venice

The third Reply AI Film Festival handed out its awards on the Lido during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, choosing ten finalists from more than 3,000 shorts submitted from 76 countries. The jury was led by Oscar winner Gabriele Salvatores and included Rob Minkoff and Catherine Hardwicke. "I arrived with a degree of scepticism and leave with renewed hope," Salvatores said.

First place went to Robert Gaudette's A Face Only a Mother Could Love, adding Venice to the Grand Prix it had already won at Runway's AIFF in June. Reply credited Grok, Nano Banana and Seedance with making a script with no budget, cast or crew possible to film. Second went to Le Drip by Alex Naghavi and Ezra Li, a fish's last day told in living oil paint, and third to Centenarian Kindergarten by the Chinese collective 2xLabs, about four centenarians escaping a facility where AI assistants enforce happiness in a childless 2090. The Reply AI Studios Grand Prix went to Website by Jiaze Li, and Ibai Abad's stop-motion-style The Child of the Sea, made with Magnific, took a special mention.