Cannes is set to host the grand finale of the third edition of the World A.I. Film Festival, an event built around the idea that artificial intelligence is moving beyond novelty to become part of contemporary filmmaking.
The World A.I. Film Festival (WAIFF) is scheduled to hold its Cannes finale at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on 6 and 7 April 2027, concluding an international circuit announced across twelve cities and five continents.
For the 2027 Cannes edition, the festival’s official website lists Institut EuropIA, the Maison de l’Intelligence Artificielle and Studio Laffitte among the organisers. Institut EuropIA is based in Biot on the French Riviera and is chaired by WAIFF founder Marco Landi.
A festival built as a world tour
Rather than operating solely as a single-city event, WAIFF is structured as an international circuit leading to Cannes. Ahead of the 2027 finale, editions are announced in cities including Beijing, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, London, Abidjan, Tokyo, Seoul and São Paulo, with Los Angeles also part of the international programme.
The African dimension of the circuit has its own dedicated platform. WAIFF Africa – Abidjan, scheduled for February 2027, is presented by the festival as its official platform for Francophone West Africa. The edition is open to creators from ten African countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Chad and Togo — and forms part of a broader pan-African ambition. Five films selected by the Abidjan jury are scheduled to continue to Cannes as part of the festival’s Road to Cannes selection.
Across the international circuit, each edition runs its own selection process, with selected works able to reach Cannes through WAIFF Horizon, the competition dedicated to films emerging from the festival’s international editions. The initiative is designed to showcase different cultures and creative approaches to AI-assisted filmmaking across participating countries.
The festival also presents itself as a meeting point for professionals working at the intersection of cinema and artificial intelligence. Alongside screenings and competitions, its Pro Talks bring together producers, platforms, investors, filmmakers and other industry figures for keynotes, panels and informal discussions about the development of AI-assisted cinema.
The founder behind the festival
WAIFF was founded by Marco Landi, president of Institut EuropIA. His professional background lies primarily in the technology industry rather than cinema. Landi spent more than two decades at Texas Instruments, holding senior responsibilities across Europe and Asia, before becoming President of Apple Europe and later President and Chief Operating Officer of Apple Computer in Cupertino.
He graduated in telecommunications engineering from the University of Bologna and later attended INSEAD‘s executive management programme.
Landi subsequently turned much of his attention to artificial intelligence, founding Institut EuropIA and contributing to the development of the Maison de l’Intelligence Artificielle in Sophia Antipolis. His work has also been associated with several technology-focused events on the French Riviera, including the World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF), the World Quantum Cannes Festival and WAIFF.
He has published three books, including a guide intended to make artificial intelligence accessible to a wider audience. Speaking ahead of WAIFF’s second edition, Landi highlighted the quality and emotional impact of AI-assisted films emerging from countries including Brazil, South Korea and Japan, while presenting the Alpes-Maritimes as a potential centre for this developing creative ecosystem.
In the video alongside, published by Institut EuropIA and WAIFF, Marco Landi invites AI creators from around the world to take part in the festival’s new edition.
Marco Landi, founder of WAIFF, presents the Cannes 2027 edition. Video: Institut EuropIA / WAIFF (Instagram).
What can be submitted
For its 2027 Cannes edition, WAIFF presents several official competitions covering feature films, short films, series, advertising and branded content, AI music videos and WAIFF Horizon, as well as a dedicated WAIFF CapCut Competition divided into two categories: Short Film and Mini-Drama.
The Feature Film competition accepts fiction, documentary and animation with a runtime of at least 30 minutes, while the Short Film competition covers works between 5 and 15 minutes. The Series competition requires a minimum of two episodes.
Both fully AI-generated films and hybrid productions combining live-action footage with AI-generated content are eligible, provided the use of artificial intelligence is significant and meaningfully contributes to the work. A selection committee reviews submissions according to the festival’s technical, format and runtime requirements.
Entries must be original and respect intellectual property rights. The rules also prohibit the unauthorised use of deepfake technology to imitate identifiable individuals. Films may be submitted in any language, provided English subtitles are embedded directly in the video when required.
One distinction is particularly important for filmmakers based in countries hosting their own WAIFF editions. According to the current Cannes 2027 rules, creators from Japan, South Korea, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom, China and Turkey, as well as the African countries participating through WAIFF Africa – Abidjan, submit through their respective local competitions rather than directly to the Cannes selection.
Key dates
Submissions for the Cannes 2027 edition opened on 15 September 2026 and are scheduled to close on 15 February 2027.
Entry fees increase across three registration periods: €15 including tax per submitted work during the early-bird period, from 15 September to 15 November 2026; €30 during the second period, which runs until 31 January 2027; and €60 during the final submission window, from 1 to 15 February 2027.
Why it matters, seen from the Riviera
For a magazine following the Riviera’s cultural, creative and luxury calendar, WAIFF illustrates another dimension of Cannes’ international identity.
The city is already associated worldwide with cinema, yachting, luxury hospitality and major international gatherings. WAIFF adds a distinctly technological dimension to that calendar, focusing on the creative, legal and economic questions raised by artificial intelligence in filmmaking.
Holding the grand finale at the Palais des Festivals is also symbolically significant. The same venue that has helped establish Cannes as one of the world’s most recognisable centres of cinema is now set to host filmmakers experimenting with technologies that could influence how moving images are conceived, produced and distributed.
The international structure of WAIFF also broadens that conversation beyond Cannes itself. From Asia and the Americas to Europe and Africa, the Road to Cannes is designed to bring different filmmaking cultures into the same international showcase, including emerging AI-assisted creative communities that have traditionally received less exposure on the global film circuit.
Whether AI becomes primarily another tool in the filmmaker’s repertoire or contributes to more fundamental changes in production remains an open question. WAIFF provides a place where some of those possibilities can be shown, discussed and tested.
Interested in submitting a film or attending the Cannes finale? Full competition rules, submission periods and registration information are available directly from the World A.I. Film Festival.
