Gyeonggi Province event opens Oct. 15 in Suwon; 20 finalists get a two-week run across 31 Seoul-area screens

2026 Korea AI Content Awards (provided by Gyeonggi Province)

Competitions for films made with generative AI are multiplying in Korea, in both the public and private sectors. The largest of them opens this week. The 2026 Korea AI Content Awards (KAICA), hosted by Gyeonggi Province and organized by the Gyeonggi Content Agency, will hold its awards ceremony and industry forum at Lotte Cinema Suwon on Oct. 15 and 16. Now in its third edition, the competition drew 1,528 entries from 87 countries and territories, its largest intake to date. When the event launched in 2024 as the Korea International AI Film Festival it received 535 entries; last year it drew 1,105 from 71 countries. Entries have nearly tripled in two years. Twenty titles advanced to the finals — six in mid-length competition, 12 in short competition and two for the Nam June Paik Special Award — and 11 of them will receive prizes.

The headline change this year is the new mid-length competition. The call had previously been built around shorts under 30 minutes; this year it was widened to films of 30 to under 60 minutes. The organizers framed the move as a test of whether AI-generated work can move past short-form experimentation toward sustained narrative and commercial finish. The top mid-length prize is KRW 20 million (approx. US$14,000), out of a total prize pool of KRW 70 million (approx. US$49,000). Among the mid-length finalists, Jang Kwon-ho's Roy on the Road (59 min 59 sec, English title unconfirmed) is a science-fiction fable running from the Pacific to outer space, built around a test robot that gains consciousness and the sniper who hunts it. Oh Ki-hyung's Meari-do Eopsi (58 min 3 sec, lit. "Without an Echo," English title unconfirmed) is set in a garment factory in Seoul's Guro Industrial Complex in 1988 and looks at the city beyond the Olympic spotlight. Lim Ye-jun's Baejjang (lit. "Guts," English title unconfirmed) won the TimeTree AI Technology Award at the 30th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

The entry requirements are specific. Films had to use generative AI in at least two production areas among image and video generation, sound and music, dialogue and narration, and editing and visual effects, and judging took into account how far AI was actually integrated into the creative process. Finalists are also required to submit the prompts and screenshots of generated results for key scenes. Under Korea's AI Framework Act, in force since Jan. 22, 2026, every entry must disclose its use of AI generation. English subtitles were mandatory for all submissions regardless of original language, which leaves the entire selection immediately watchable for non-Korean programmers and buyers. The Nam June Paik Special Award was introduced this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the video art pioneer's death, and goes to work that uses AI as an aesthetic instrument through homage and transformation rather than replication.

The two-day industry forum runs under the theme "See What's Between." The Directors Guild of Korea will present what commercial feature directors learned making AI films themselves, while the broadcast cinematographers' association will address "AI hybrid production," combining conventional camera work with AI. SmartStudy Ventures and Mateo AI Studio will examine the AI moving-image sector from an investment and commercialization standpoint. The finalists screen from Oct. 15 to 28 across 31 Lotte Cinema screens in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, with GV sessions alongside the screenings.

The character of the awards becomes clearer next to a private-sector counterpart. VoyagerX, which operates the AI video editing tool Vrew, ran a two-week AI short-form challenge last month on the theme of K-culture and received 984 entries, all vertical videos under a minute posted straight to social platforms. KAICA, by contrast, adopts a festival structure that binds competition sections, theatrical screenings, GVs and an industry forum into one event. Gyeonggi Province plans to extend that with follow-up matchmaking, including broadcast screenings and introductions to production companies and venture capital. With social media the default distribution route for AI-generated video, the public sector is testing an alternative path through cinemas and industry networks.

The subject matter of the finalists is worth noting as well. A garment worker in 1988; an exhausted labourer drifting through São Paulo (Cornered, English title unconfirmed); a world where everyone uses a wheelchair (Stand-up Comedy, English title unconfirmed); a graded afterlife (Geudaega Pal Su Eopseotdeon Gieoge Daehayeo, lit. "On the Memories You Could Not Sell," English title unconfirmed). Labour, loss, disability and class recur across the selection, suggesting that the axis of evaluation is shifting from image quality toward perspective and storytelling.

For international industry observers, two things are worth watching. One is the composition of the finalist field, which includes creators from China, France, Italy and Brazil — an early window onto emerging talent with working AI production skills. The other is whether the mid-length section takes hold. Whether AI production can sustain narrative beyond 30 minutes remains unproven, and the results of these six films are likely to set the reference point for any discussion of feature-length work.

Sources

• CINE21, "20 New Worlds at the 2026 Korea AI Content Awards" , 2026.10.05

• Platum, "AI Film and Short-Form Competitions Multiply as Korea AI Content Awards and Vrew Challenge Announce Winners", 2026.10.07

• Maeil Ilbo, "'2026 Korea AI Content Awards' Nears Opening at Record Scale", 2026.10.07

• Ajunews, "Gyeonggi Province Widens the Stage for AI Film: Works from 87 Countries Gather in Suwon", 2026.09.27

• Gyeonggi Province, "2026 Korea AI Content Awards Call for Entries", accessed 2026.10.13

• Korea AI Content Awards, "Submission Guidelines and Deadline Extension Notice", accessed 2026.10.13