Astana (Showbiz Desk): The Astana AI Film Festival 2026 was held in Kazakhstan and has been described as the world’s largest international competition for films created with the help of artificial intelligence.
According to the Kazakh news agency, a total of 8,067 films were submitted to the festival from 125 countries. In terms of the number of films, the United States ranked first with 1,395 films, while Kazakhstan was second with 829 films.
A total of 702 films were received from India, 550 from China and 349 from South Korea for the festival.
Festival co-founder and board chairman Almas Zhali said that receiving more than 8,000 films from 125 countries for the international competition, which was launched just a few months ago, was a significant development.
According to co-founder and creative director Izzatullah Hussain, the concept of the festival was presented in Astana in December 2025 amid rapid advances in creative video technology.
He said that in terms of various measures, including the number of films and $2 million in financial support, the Astana AI Film Festival has become the world’s largest artificial intelligence film festival.
According to media reports, approximately 40 percent of the submitted films, or 3,138 films, highlighted the festival’s central theme, “A Future Worth Living.” The combined duration of all these films exceeds 100,000 minutes, while they were produced by 4,756 filmmakers using more than 80 generative artificial intelligence models.
A total prize pool of $1 million has been allocated for the festival, with $750,000 reserved for the main thematic program and $250,000 for five open categories.