The clock starts Friday at 15:00 and stops Sunday at 15:00. After that, your film hits the cinema screen. Everything in your film gets made inside those 48 hours. That's the whole game.
It does not start cold. The week before, there is an optional warm-up workshop: a refresher on the filmmaking and AI pipeline, and a first chance to meet the people you might end up making a film with.
Friday morning is free time in the best sense: you align on the pipeline, meet the room, and pitch. Nothing you make there counts yet. From 15:00, it all counts.
You are not doing this alone. Directors and AI specialists are in the room the entire weekend, and there are checkpoints where someone experienced looks at your film and tells you the truth while there's still time to act on it.
A pipeline refresher plus the first hellos. Nothing here counts towards your film, and you can skip it. The people who come tend to hit the ground running on Friday.
An industry event with a panel, the day before the clock starts. Panel details follow soon.
A warm-up and hands-on session across the full pipeline before the clock starts at 15:00. One shared toolset, one delivery spec, so no team loses Saturday to tool confusion. Teams form, and building starts the moment the clock hits zero.
Build and shoot on the campus of the legendary Filmuniversität Babelsberg. Directors and AI specialists unblock you all weekend.
Your film premieres at a real cinema on the Filmuniversität Babelsberg campus, with awards, in front of a full house.
You're there for the full weekend, Friday morning to Sunday night. Not half of it. The films that fall apart are the ones missing a person on Saturday afternoon.
Awards are handed out Sunday night, on stage, in front of everyone. Prizes come from our partners: tool and compute credits, gear, and a few surprises. The real prize is a finished film with your name on it and a room that watched it.
Voted by the room right after the screening. No jury, no debate.
The idea that holds up. Character, conflict, and an ending that earns itself.
The clearest vision on screen. A film that knows exactly what it wants to be.
Framing, grade, art direction. Whether it was shot or generated does not matter.
The smartest hybrid of AI and real craft. The team that used the tools instead of being used by them.
At some point on Friday, before the clock starts, anyone with an idea gets three minutes in front of the room. That pitch is how your crew finds you, so it's less about being impressive and more about being clear enough that the right people walk over afterwards.
No slides required. One image on your phone is enough. The clock is hard: three minutes and the next person is up.
The pitches exist so people can find each other, not to test you. Sit and listen, then join a crew afterwards. Or arrive as a full crew that already knows what it is making and skip the whole thing. Just register everyone properly.
Thirty seconds: what you're good at, what you want to do this weekend, what you want to learn. Editors, sound people, performers and producers get grabbed fast, most of them before the pitches are even over.
The modifiers drop on Friday, before the clock starts and before the pitches. If you arrive with a script, plan how it bends. Don't defend it.
Name, what you do, and the role you want this weekend. Ten seconds, not two minutes.
One logline. If you can't say it in a sentence, you don't have it yet, and the room will hear that.
One image, reference or 10-second clip that shows the feeling. Show, don't describe.
Skills, gear, and the tools you actually know how to drive. Be honest. You'll work with these people for 48 hours.
The exact roles that are missing. "Anyone who wants to join" gets you nobody. "An editor and a performer" gets you an editor and a performer.
Table number, Instagram handle, or just where you'll be standing in ten minutes.
The optional session one week out is a filmmaking and AI pipeline refresher that gets you in a room with people you might end up making a film with. Not required, and skipping it costs you nothing on the weekend itself.
Friday morning itself is the real warm-up: three hands-on pipeline sessions before the clock starts, so every team works from the same toolset. It's a refresher for people who already use these tools, not a first lesson. If you'd be opening them for the first time, come to our meetups and workshops first.
Don't arrive with a finished film. The modifiers land on Friday and everything that ends up on screen has to be made inside the 48 hours. Ideas are welcome. Exports are not.
Coffee and snacks are on us throughout the weekend, and meal breaks are built into the schedule. We'll confirm the catering situation with accepted participants before the weekend.
Yes. That's the one rule. Friday morning to Sunday night. The overnight hours are yours to sleep or keep working, but the days belong to your team. Films fall apart when someone disappears on Saturday afternoon.
You can, and plenty of people do. But you'll have to bend it to the modifiers, which nobody sees until Friday, just before the clock starts. Come with an idea you're willing to break, not a script you're trying to protect.
A line of dialogue, an object, and one extra element. All three have to be in your film. Everyone gets the same ones at the same moment, which is what makes twenty films from the same three ingredients so fun to watch back to back.
Yes. You should already work with AI image, video and audio tools and know your way around an edit. Friday's sessions align everyone on one pipeline: concept, image, motion, voice, sound, edit. They're a refresher, not a first lesson. If you'd be opening these tools for the first time, start with the free tutorials and the meetups and workshops by filmakers.ai first: learning on the day is frustrating for you and your team.
No. Most people come alone and teams form on Friday around the pitches. You can also apply as a full crew and stay together, in which case you don't need to pitch or recruit at all. Just register everyone properly.
Yes, and we'd love it if you did. Hybrid is the whole point: live action, generated shots, or both in the same film. Bring your camera if you have one.
Short. The exact maximum runtime and the delivery spec go out to accepted participants before the weekend, and we repeat both on Friday morning. Everything screens back to back on Sunday, so the limit is firm.
Whatever you hand in at the deadline is what screens. Rough cuts screen. Missing sound screens. A film that turns up twenty minutes late does not. Plan your Sunday backwards from that deadline, not forwards from your breakfast.
Yes. On Sunday evening the cinema is open to guests, partners and press. Invite people. Watching your film with a full house is the entire reward.
Write to us at [email protected] and we'll answer properly. If it's a good question, it ends up on this page.
