Best AI Indie Short
The one the whole night is for
It lands on whichever short would hold this room even if nobody in it knew how the thing was made.
Over the hill
from Hollywood.
One night of AI-made independent shorts, in a bar on Ventura, in front of the people who make movies for a living.
The Idea
A bar instead of a theatre.
AI Indie Valley is what happens when the newest tool in filmmaking turns up in the oldest company town on earth and books a bar instead of a theatre.
Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks. This is the Valley: over the hill from Hollywood, where the editors and colourists and mixers and grips actually live. Not the side of the hill with the premieres. The side with the parking.
That geography is the entire point. Everybody within a mile of this room has an opinion about what AI is doing to this business, and most of those opinions are not gentle. We are not going to stand on a stage and pretend otherwise. We are going to put the films up in a room with a bar in it, in front of people who make movies for a living, and let them say exactly what they think.
What we want is work where the machine did something real and a person still ran the show. Made without a greenlight, without an agent, without anyone's permission. If it exists because somebody had more nerve than money, it belongs on Ventura.
One night. Doors at five. Twenty-one and over. Bring the film you could not get anyone to pay for.
The Awards
Eight prizes.
Three carry the night. Five more for the craft that got them there.
Best Film Made Without Permission
Nerve over money
For the short that had no financing, no permission, and no plan B, and got finished anyway.
Best Visual Work
The look of the thing
This city sells its light to the whole world. Handed to whoever put the most beautiful thing on our screen, by whatever means they found.
Best AI Director
The one whose hand you can feel on every decision in the film.
Best AI Editing
The cut that controls the room: rhythm, timing, and knowing what to leave out.
Best AI Score & Sound
The film you could shut your eyes through and still follow.
Best AI Comedy
The one that gets the biggest laugh out of a bar on a Saturday night.
The Last Call Award
Audience Choice. Named after the two words that end every night on this boulevard. The room votes before it empties.
Rules & Eligibility
What gets in.
AI, doing something
Somewhere in the build - picture, motion, effects, voice, music, cut, script, or the idea itself - artificial intelligence has to have done actual work. How much is up to you. We are not counting percentages.
Nobody greenlit this
Independently made, independently paid for. Studio-financed or studio-controlled work is not what this night is for.
Any genre
Drama, comedy, horror, doc, animation, or something with no name yet. We do not care what shelf it goes on.
Length
Shorts, under 30 minutes.
Subtitles
Not in English? Send it with English subtitles.
You have to own it
Every frame and every note on the soundtrack needs to be yours to hand over, model output included. Sort that out before you submit, not after you are selected.
Your work only
Copied or infringing films get pulled, no argument.
How to enter
Through FilmFreeway. Entry money does not come back. Multiple films are fine, one entry each.
We decide
What plays and what wins is ours to call. If the entries push us somewhere unexpected, we will reshape the categories to match.
The room is 21+
The screening is in a licensed bar. If your film is selected and you are coming, bring ID.
Deadlines & Fees
Three tiers, tight window.
Entries open July 20, 2026, and the whole thing is one drive down Ventura: green light, rush hour, last exit. Only 96 days from opening to the doors, so the ladder moves fast.
Early Bird
Green Light
$9
Regular
Rush Hour
$13
Late
Last Exit
$17
Everyone hears back by October 14, 2026. Doors open October 24, 2026 at 5 PM. Expect a small processing charge from FilmFreeway at checkout as well.
Submit
Bring the film nobody paid for.
Entries run through FilmFreeway. The page for the first year is being set up right now.
Entries open shortlyFilmFreeway page goes up soon
The Venue
The Green Room on Ventura.
The Green Room on Ventura
14082 Ventura Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 91423
Saturday, October 24, 2026 · doors at 5:00 PM
21 and over · bring ID