Colorado AI & IndieFilm Festival
Submit a Film
Colorado AI and Indie Film Festival logo over a mountain valley at golden hour, framed by stone archways trailing film strip, with a figure in a long gown looking out over the peaks

Season 1 · Greenwood Village, Colorado

The light that reaches the ridge first.

An AI-optional short film festival, screened once, in one room, outside Denver. February 5, 2027.

01 · About

For a few minutes before sunrise and a few after sunset, the highest ridgelines in Colorado catch a band of light the valley floor will not see for another hour. Climbers call it alpenglow. It does not last long, and it does not ask permission. It just finds whatever is already standing tallest.

A short film tends to get made the same way, mostly in the gaps, caught by whoever happened to already be standing in the right place when the light came through.

Colorado AI and Indie Film Festival takes short films from any country and any genre, made by people who found their own light: with a full crew, with none, or with a tool that did the part nobody could pay for. If artificial intelligence helped somewhere, the writing, the images, the voice, the score, or the cut, say where. If it did not, that is just as welcome.

On Friday, February 5, 2027, from 2 to 4 PM, we screen the selected films at 6400 South Fiddlers Green Circle in Greenwood Village, just southeast of Denver. Expect the full lineup back to back, a short Q&A with the directors who can be there, and time afterward to talk with the room. No afterparty, no red carpet, just the films and the people who made them.

02 · Awards

Seven prizes.

The grand prize goes to the film, not the format.

Best Short Grand prize. The best film in the program, full stop.
Best DirectorFor whoever held the whole thing together, on set or wherever the real decisions got made.
Best ScreenplayFor the script that earns its runtime, nothing in it that didn't need to be there.
Best CinematographyFor camera work that knew what it was looking at.
Best EditingFor the cut that decided what the film is actually about.
Best Use of AIFor the clearest, most deliberate use of it somewhere in the process.
Best Music VideoFor a film built around a track, not just set to one.

03 · Before You Submit

Three things to check.

Not a long list. Read it once, you are set.

The Film

  • Runtime. 20 minutes or under, any genre, fiction or documentary.
  • Completion date. Finished on or after January 1, 2024.
  • Language. English, or carrying English subtitles.
  • Premiere status. Not required. Already screened or awarded elsewhere is fine.

The AI Part

  • If AI played a role anywhere, the writing, the images, the voice, the score, or the cut, tell us where. Not a requirement, just tell us if it happened.

Getting It To Us

  • More than one film? Send them all. Each is its own entry.
  • Rights. You need to hold all of them, enough to let us put the film in front of a room.
  • Decisions. We can say no without explaining why, and we build the running order ourselves.

04 · Deadlines

Season 1.

Three tiers. The fee moves, the film does not have to be ready any sooner.

OpensNovember 4, 2026 
Early BirdNovember 11, 2026$12
RegularDecember 17, 2026$16
FinalJanuary 22, 2027$20
NotificationJanuary 28, 2027 
ScreeningFebruary 5, 2027, 2:00 PM 

Submissions open November 4, 2026, through FilmFreeway.

05 · The Room

Greenwood Village, Colorado.

6400 South Fiddlers Green Circle, Greenwood Village, CO 80111. Southeast of downtown Denver, in the Denver Tech Center.

Friday, February 5, 2027, 2:00 to 4:00 PM.

Questions before then, write to main@coloradoaiifilmfest.com.