Meet the 10 Finalists of Runway's 4th Annual AI Film Festival (And Yes, They're Actually Good)

Every year, filmmakers from around the world submit their AI-assisted short films to Runway's International AI Film Festival, hoping to prove that artificial intelligence can make something genuinely moving, strange, or beautiful. Most years, the results are… a lot. This year? The ten finalists are legitimately great. Here they are, ranked by nobody, judged by us.

1. Simiyu, Lies and Happiness, John Kirk Kelly · 3:34

An Australian inn in the early 1980s. Guests. Workers. Thoughts. Moments. That's… basically it. And somehow it works beautifully. John Kirk Kelly somehow convinced AI tools to conjure the specific vibe of staring out a window in rural Australia while a kettle boils. An extraordinary achievement in cinematic "not much happening, and yet."

2. TAIRELL ISN'T REAL, Dave Clark · 5:04

A gorgeous, hyper-perfect influencer starts getting ratio'd into an existential crisis when the internet decides he doesn't exist. Plot twist: they might have a point. This one will hit different if you've ever doom-scrolled at 2am wondering if you exist. Which is all of us. We are all Tairell.

3. The Well, Dorian & Daniel · 5:29

A wolf is found dead at the bottom of a well in a snow-covered trailer park. A hare starts investigating. Yes, the characters are animals. No, you will not find this silly once you're watching it. Film noir has never felt so furry. CSI: Trailer Park is the show we didn't know we needed.

4. Where Knights Fall, Mathery · 3:35

You know the Rapunzel story. Girl in tower, knights keep showing up, knights keep dying, it's a whole thing. This one asks: what if the guy who finally makes it up doesn't exactly climb? He crawls. He slides. He is not impressive. He is, however, persistent. A deeply romantic film about a man with very little upper body strength.

5. 살(煞), Divine Retribution, Minju Choi · 7:39

A strange being is born in a Joseon-era Korean village. A mother is involved. A shaman is involved. The villagers are terrified, and honestly, same. This is the festival's most haunting entry by a significant margin. Do not watch this alone at night. Do not watch this after eating. Just… watch it during daylight hours with a friend who is larger than you.

6. A Face Only A Mother Could Love, Robert Gaudette · 7:50

Marcel Dupont walks through Paris with absolute, unshakeable confidence. The world parts around him, literally, and he doesn't notice. Not once. It's about loneliness, courage, and an accordion player who turned up at exactly the right moment. Somehow both devastating and deeply charming. Marcel, we love you. Paris does not, but we do.

7. Little Mes, Lucas Levitan & Fabián Jiménez · 4:19

What if you had taken a different path? Who would you be? This film asks that question and then refuses to answer it, which is both philosophically honest and mildly infuriating. An animated internal monologue that follows a character through life, haunted by all the versions of themselves they didn't become. Light viewing for your Tuesday lunch break!

8. POSTMAN, YUUUKI · 7:00

Set in a near future where nobody writes letters anymore, a small robot-ish protagonist finds an old letter and decides to deliver it. What follows is a journey through a world of pure efficiency that has accidentally optimized away all its feelings. The most unexpectedly emotional film about mail since… well, ever. The Postman with Kevin Costner does not count.

9. Between Before and After, Sifang Chen & Yang Wang · 8:21

Kyoko sees her ex-lover on a billboard. They meet again. They are not in love, exactly, more like trapped in orbit around a shared emptiness. He proposes something dramatic. Reality shows up uninvited. Past and future become the same blurry thing. Absolutely devastating. Two stars, would not recommend if you recently broke up with someone. Five stars as a film.

10. Costa Verde, Léo Cannone & New Forest Film · 11:35

A boy in 1990s Corsica gets his first camera and spends a summer documenting his grandparents. It is exactly as warm and lovely as it sounds. It is the longest film in the festival and the one most likely to make you call your grandparents immediately after watching it. Or feel really bad that you haven't called them. Either way, Costa Verde wins the "films that make you a slightly better person" category by a landslide.

The Verdict

Ten films. Ten very different answers to the question of what AI filmmaking can actually be. No one here is using AI to replace storytelling, they're using it to tell stories they couldn't have told otherwise. That's the whole point, and this year's finalists absolutely nail it.

Catch them live in New York on June 11 or Los Angeles on June 18. Tickets are available now. Go watch some short films. Tell your friends. Call your grandparents.