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THE DECEMBER 14 2025 FILM FESTIVAL
HOLLYWOOD, CA —In a creative landscape shadowed by doubt, imitation, and digital perfection, the AI International Film Festival continues to point the way.
On Sunday, December 14, the festival will stage two festivals back-to-back at the Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave. Both the AI International Film Festival and the AI International Music Video Festival.
These are the Filmmakers of Tomorrow. "Like an Academy Awards but for AI-related Films, now monthly." -R. Maggi, director, writer, actor
“It’s a faster and rapidly expanding world,” said festival founder Bert Holland, “but speed doesn’t trump meaning. These filmmakers prove that the most advanced technology on earth is still the human, and the human has a message.”
“Mamma Robot” - Elettra Fiumi - Switzerland - 2025 - 6 min - World Festival Premiere
This short is clever in the best way: it takes two very different anxieties - artificial wombs and myth-making - and braids them together into one seamless, slightly unhinged narrative. The podcast-style framing is surprisingly effective, giving the story a folkloric tone while still grounding it in modern techno-paranoia.
The director manages to juggle satire, suspense, and social commentary without dropping the ball. Visually and structurally, it’s well crafted and confident.
The “Lab 13000” concept is absurd but disturbingly plausible, and the parallel fairytale gives the whole film a timeless, almost cautionary quality. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and playfully self-aware... a smart little film that knows exactly what it’s doing.
“Unknown Artefact” - Lilit Barseghyan - Armenia - 2025 - 19 min
"Unknown Artefact" is an unexpectedly strong 19-minute descent into a fractured mind - part sci-fi, part psychological drama, part experimental fever-dream. The director moves confidently between emotional warmth and cold detachment, using visual distortion not as decoration but as a deliberate metaphor for the protagonist’s unraveling. It’s one of the rare cases where the effects actually serve the story instead of drowning it.
The non-linear structure works beautifully: we’re pulled through memory, perception, and imagination without losing the thread. The cinematography is thoughtful, atmospheric, and consistent, giving the film a quiet sophistication.
The story becomes clear not because it’s explained, but because it’s shaped with intention.*
“Current” - Shaobo Chen - China - 2025 - 9 min - World Premiere
"Current" is one of those rare AI shorts that feels like it inherited the soul of early sci-fi cinema: quiet, patient, unafraid of silence. Its pacing is deliberate, almost tender... letting us sit with these two robots long enough to feel their weight, their loneliness, their worn-out humor.
The world-building is beautifully restrained. No flashy dystopian fireworks, just a deserted recharging station where the last two beings on Earth (machines, not humans) share small talk that gradually fractures into memory, guilt, and something eerily close to regret. The cinematography is clean and controlled, the sound is calibrated just enough to let the emptiness breathe.
A quiet, elegant dystopia.
“The Last Whale” - Anna di Luce - Germany - 2025 - 9 min - World Festival Premiere
“The Last Whale” is one of those rare AI-assisted shorts that remembers the one thing technology can’t fabricate: soul.
What makes this film remarkable is not its premise - a lonely, depressed sergeant who stumbles into saving the world - but the texture of its storytelling. It’s filled with those tiny, oddly human details that only a filmmaker with a real intuitive pulse can deliver.
Visually, the film moves with a confidence that’s refreshing. There’s real cinematographic awareness here - not in the sense of perfectly polished compositions, but in the sense of knowing exactly when to let imperfection be the emotion. The film breaks rules and shrugs at them. It carries a “don’t tell me what cinema should be - I care about what you feel” energy that is rare, especially in AI-assisted work.
“Flood the zone with shit” - Albertine Meunier - France - 2025 - 4 min - World Premiere
A blunt, fast-paced political documentary short, this film examines the evolution of disinformation from Steve Bannon’s 2018 strategy to the AI-accelerated chaos of 2024. Its montage style is intentionally overwhelming (mirroring the very tactic it critiques) and the clinical narration underscores just how easy it has become to manufacture visual “truth.”
The short is wild in its presentation, almost dizzying, but that’s the point. It illustrates how AI has perfected the old propaganda playbook: not by persuading people, but by burying them in noise until truth becomes unfindable. The barrage of AI-manipulated political images feels absurd, yet the film captures exactly how effective these tactics can be.
Technically, it’s stark and intentionally abrasive; emotionally, it’s sobering.*
“Rufus: The Compton Cowboy” - Larry Ulrich - United States - 2025 - 3 min - World Premiere
At 48 minutes, Rufus stands as one of the rare fully AI-made feature films that actually feels like a feature film. Larry Ulrich handles writing, directing, acting, editing, and the entire AI pipeline, an ambitious undertaking that somehow results in a cohesive, polished world. Most long-form AI experiments fall apart halfway through: characters morph, eyes drift, lip-sync collapses, continuity dies. Here? Almost none of that. The craft is shockingly steady.
The world-building is meticulous and confident, a stylized frontier where biblical rewriting meets modern oppression, grounded by community memory and resilience. The dialect work is especially impressive; every character has a distinct voice and cadence, creating the sense of a lived-in universe rather than a collage of random models. Structurally, it holds. Emotionally, it lands. The pacing is especially strong: enough time to breathe, enough time to move.
“Railbound” - Jonathan Perry - United States - 2025 - 10 min
A standout piece. "Railbound" is visually stunning and emotionally precise, a rare example of AI cinema that feels genuinely cinematic rather than experimental. Built from Mike Brodie’s iconic train-hopping photographs, the film breathes movement and memory into still frames with such sensitivity that you forget you’re watching generative work at all.
The narration is beautifully written and delivered, threading youth, rebellion, longing, and the search for identity into something raw and human. The coloring, pacing, and cinematography are all exceptionally controlled - moody, intimate, and nostalgic without slipping into imitation. This is a film where the director’s artistic vision is unmistakable; the medium becomes irrelevant because the soul of the story is so clear.
“BEHIND THE SLEIGH - An Interview with Mr Claus” - Jodie Heenan - Australia - 2025 - 6 min - World Festival Premiere
This is such a refreshing Christmas short. The writing is sharp, the production choices land, and Santa’s ranting about algorithms and NFTs feels both painfully true and genuinely funny. It’s a different kind of Santa - slightly jaded, fully self-aware, and very Aussie - and the humor hits in every scene. Short, snappy, and entertaining from start to finish. A tiny mockumentary with real bite.
“Horses” - Drew Dammron - United States - 2025 - 9 min - World Premiere
"Horses" is a dark little mirror held up to Hollywood’s forgotten children - the “has-beens” who once lived on applause and now choke on silence. It’s well-acted, well-produced, and carries a slick satirical bite that feels uncomfortably believable. The film walks that tightrope between tragedy and comedy, letting you laugh for a second before realizing the joke is actually a cry for help.
Its hybrid style works: part character study, part social commentary, part fever dream of a man who mistakes destruction for purpose.
“Flower Front” - Roberto Puzzo - Germany - 2025 - 13 min
A visually poetic and politically resonant piece, "Flower Front" transforms the gesture of giving a flower into a symbol of moral courage. The film captures the tension between power and compassion, reflecting the current European political and military atmosphere without slipping into propaganda. It’s a meditation on peace - not as a passive ideal, but as an active, defiant choice.
Flower Front succeeds because it feels grounded and intentional. It speaks softly, but with weight... a rare short that manages to be both reflective and politically charged without shouting.*
“Theatre of the Absurd” - Fran Forman - United States - 2025 - 13 min
A striking fusion of traditional art and AI experimentation, "Theatre of the Absurd" feels like stepping into an artist’s psyche during a moment of political and emotional unrest. Rich, moody, and steeped in historical resonance, the film delivers a powerful abstraction of totalitarianism’s psychological impact without resorting to literalism. The aesthetic is consistent, the atmosphere intentional, and the underlying pain unmistakably present.*
“The Night Shift” - Yana Vynohrodska, Vasyl Khashchevoi - Ukraine - 2025 - 4 min
This is a quietly stunning piece. The animation style is beautiful in a way that feels felt rather than designed - textured, intimate, and perfectly suited to a film about the thin membrane between life, pain, and the self. There’s a softness to the visuals that makes the heaviness of the subject matter even more affecting.
The sound design and pacing work in harmony with the imagery, creating a rhythm that feels like the internal monologue of someone who has been carrying too much for too long. It’s sad, but not in a manipulative way - more like a truthful observation of what happens to people who tend to the suffering of others until it becomes woven into their own body.*
“THE ONE MAN SHOW” - Haggar Shoval - Israel - 2025 - 7 min
A strong, confidently executed short, "THE ONE MAN SHOW" blends psychological drama with subtle sci-fi in a way that feels both stylish and thematically grounded. David Starr’s descent into a manufactured “perfect moment” is a sharp commentary on ego, fame addiction, and the seductive danger of curated reality. The film understands its own thesis: sometimes the applause becomes a drug, and oblivion starts looking safer than authenticity.
The visuals are consistent and polished - clean cinematography, cohesive color and lighting decisions, and a tightly controlled aesthetic. The performances are solid, especially as the story slips between memory, therapy, and the Replay™ program; the transitions feel smooth rather than gimmicky. The dialogue is thoughtful and restrained, never overplaying its hand, and the pacing supports the psychological unraveling without dragging.
The result is a well-told, well-crafted piece that balances narrative clarity with emotional ambiguity.
A smart film with something real to say.*
“ALIBI: MOONLIGHT BLOOD ALLIANCE” - CELIA NIEN CHE SIE, CYRUS SIU WAI LEUNG - South Korea - 2025 - 4 min
This short is pure, unapologetic fantasy chaos - and honestly, it knows exactly what it’s doing. "ALIBI: Moonlight Blood Alliance" feels like someone tossed Game of Thrones, K-drama aesthetics, and a glitter bomb of vampire lore into a blender and said, “Yes. This. Perfect.” The result is ridiculous, fun, and wildly entertaining.
The three princes look more like baby-faced K-pop trainees than hardened heirs to a throne, yet somehow they’re effortlessly slaying dragons, mud monsters, and a rogue bat demon without breaking a sweat. The stakes are high, but their hair stays perfect. The vampires are fierce and sparkly, the world is dramatic and over-the-top, and the entire thing feels like a fever dream choreographed by a stylish teenager with too much Red Bull.
It’s glossy, rough, campy, and cool in a way that only East Asian fantasy hybrids can be. A muddy, fiery K-pop action sequence of a film. And sometimes, that’s exactly the vibe.