# AI films, series and landmark AI videos (genre overview)

_Researched 2026-09-29. View counts are from YouTube watch pages on that day. This covers videos whose images come from **video/world models** (Sora, Veo, Gemini Omni, Kling, Seedance, Runway, Hailuo, Genie). For videos made by **language-model agents** see [agent-made-videos.md](agent-made-videos.md); for Claude's music videos see [claude-pop.md](claude-pop.md). Motif glossary: [lore.md](lore.md)._

## In one paragraph
AI video went from a meme (Will Smith eating melting spaghetti, March 2023) to festival films, TV ads and feature-length releases in three years. In 2026 the main tools are ByteDance's **Seedance 2.0 / 2.5**, Kuaishou's **Kling 3.0 / 4.0**, Google's **Gemini Omni** (Google's video model after Veo 3; there was no separate "Veo 4"), Runway, and platforms that bundle them (Higgsfield, Flow, CapCut). A creator circuit formed around them: Runway's AI Film Festival, the $1M Higgsfield Global Film Festival, CapCut CRE[AI]TE, the Seoul International AI Film Festival and the Reply AI Film Festival. The first feature-length and episodic AI works (Hell Grind, No Big Deal, Gods Don't Give Gifts) arrived in the same year that language-model agents began directing these video models themselves.

## Landmarks, 2023–2025 (files in `data/videos/`)
| Date | Work | Tools | Views | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-03 | "Will Smith eating spaghetti" (u/chaindrop, r/StableDiffusion); reupload with AI audio | ModelScope text-to-video (reported) + ElevenLabs | 2.1M | `roy-cassette-will-smith-eating-spaghetti-2023` |
| 2023-03-15 | "Harry Potter by Balenciaga" (demonflyingfox) | Midjourney v4, ElevenLabs, D-ID | 14.8M | `demonflyingfox-harry-potter-by-balenciaga` |
| 2023-04-24 | "Pepperoni Hug Spot" fake pizza ad (Pizza Later) | Runway Gen-2, LLM script, ElevenLabs (reported) | 1.4M | `pizza-later-pepperoni-hug-spot` |
| 2024-02-28 | "Will Smith Eating Spaghetti (2023 vs 2024)", the month of Sora and of Will Smith's own real parody | compilation | 2.7M | `will-smith-eating-spaghetti-2023-vs-2024` |
| 2024-04-05 | "air head" by shy kids, the first famous Sora short; later revealed to involve heavy VFX cleanup | Sora preview | 248k | `shy-kids-air-head-sora` |
| 2024-05-02 | Washed Out, "The Hardest Part", the first official music video made with Sora (dir. Paul Trillo) | Sora preview | 452k | `washed-out-the-hardest-part-sora` |
| 2024-12-22 | "Total Pixel Space" (Jacob Adler), Grand Prix of Runway AIFF 2025 | not stated | 97k | `jacob-adler-total-pixel-space` |
| 2025-02-13 | "Critterz — Remastered with Sora" (OpenAI; Chad Nelson), later announced as an OpenAI-backed animated feature | Sora | 143k | `openai-critterz-remastered-with-sora` |
| 2025-05-11 | Neural Viz, "This Is News" (the Monoverse) | Runway Act-One, Sora, Kling | 630k | `neural-viz-this-is-news` |
| 2025-06-11 | Kalshi NBA Finals ad by PJ Ace, the first Veo 3 TV ad to be widely noticed | Veo 3 | 351k | `pj-ace-kalshi-nba-finals-veo-3-ad` |
| 2025-10-24 | Kelly Boesch, "A Very Unusual Town", a surreal fully AI music video | Midjourney, Hailuo, Suno | 1.7M | `kelly-boesch-a-very-unusual-town` |

## 2026: films, series and features
| Date | Work | Tools | Views | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-02-08 | "Will Smith eating spaghetti is the official benchmark of AI evolution" (2023→2026) | compilation | 519k | `dark-narr-will-smith-spaghetti-benchmark-2026` |
| 2026-02-28 | "BONE THRONE" (Lennard Smith), a Higgsfield Action Contest entry, being developed into a feature | Seedance 2.0, Kling 3.0 | 413k | `lennard-smith-bone-throne` |
| 2026-04-23 | "A Face Only A Mother Could Love" (Robert Gaudette), **Grand Prix, Runway AIFF 2026**, also won the Reply AI Film Festival | not stated | 14k | `robert-gaudette-face-only-a-mother-could-love` |
| 2026-05-21 | **"Hell Grind"**, a 95-minute feature shown at Cannes Market screenings; full film + open-sourced prompts 2026-08-04 | Higgsfield Soul Cinema, Seedance 2.0 | 487k | `higgsfield-hell-grind-ai-feature-film` |
| 2026-05-24 | "What Remains" (Lucas M. Kern), finalist at Seoul Int. AI Film Festival 2026 | Kling | 748k | `lucas-kern-what-remains-seoul-ai-film-festival` |
| 2026-07-20 | "AIR BORN" (FILM CRUX), a CapCut CRE[AI]TE showcase | not stated | 2.1M | `film-crux-air-born-capcut-createai` |
| 2026-08-04 | "The Day Yellowstone Erupted", a disaster simulation (same channel later let Opus 5.5 direct Niagara) | Seedance 2.5 | 163k | `aivideos-the-day-yellowstone-erupted` |
| 2026-08-27 | "The Last Base" (NGC) | Seedance 2.5 | 575k | `ngc-the-last-base-seedance-2-5` |
| 2026-08-29 | "VOID CORE" full movie (58 min, re-cut from an episodic series) | AI elements, not named | 1.2M | `max-ai-movie-void-core-full-movie` |
| 2026-09-09 | "RESET" (Max Barskih), Higgsfield Global Film Festival entry | Higgsfield | 656k | `max-barskih-reset-higgsfield-film-festival` |
| **2026-09-11** | **"No Big Deal" Ep. 1**, billed as the first fully AI sitcom (ModeLabs.ai) | not named | 27k | `no-big-deal-ai-sitcom-episode-1` |
| 2026-09-28 | "Anerneq", a 20-minute Higgsfield Originals Arctic drama, open-sourced | Higgsfield | 29k | `higgsfield-anerneq-arctic-drama` |
| 2026-09-28 | "The Beat", Kling's launch film for Kling 4.0 | Kling 4.0 | 6.9k | `kling-the-beat-made-with-kling-4-0` |
| 2026-09-28 | "Gods Don't Give Gifts" first teaser (Gossip Goblin / Fable Studio), reported for US theaters | not stated | 50k | `gossip-goblin-gods-dont-give-gifts-teaser` |

## World-model footage (Genie)
Genie 3 (announced 2025-08) became public as Project Genie on 2026-01-29; at I/O 2026 it gained Street View grounding. Files: `randomai-insane-worlds-genie-3` (first-week user worlds, many near-copies of famous games) and `bilawal-sidhu-genie-3-street-view-game` (any Street View location as a playable world; 246k). DeepMind's own videos ("Genie 3: Creating dynamic worlds...", 719k; "Project Genie", 681k) are official, not community works, and have no files yet.

## Festivals and contests (2026)
- **Runway AI Film Festival (AIF 2026)**: Grand Prix "A Face Only A Mother Could Love"; Gold "THE WELL" (Dorian & Daniel); Silver "Where Knights Fall" (Mathery); honorees "Costa Verde", "TAIRELL ISN'T REAL" (Dave Clark). Source: [Hollywood.AI](https://hollywood.ai/awards/runway-ai-film-festival); entry [2026-06-26-runway-ai-film-festival-2026-winners](../../data/entries/2026-06-26-runway-ai-film-festival-2026-winners.md).
- **Higgsfield Global Film Festival**: $1,000,000 across 14 winners, 3–5-minute films made on Higgsfield, entries closed 2026-09-16, winners expected in the last week of October 2026 ([Higgsfield](https://higgsfield.ai/contests/higgsfield-global-film-festival), [Hollywood.AI](https://hollywood.ai/awards/higgsfield-global-film-festival)). Dozens of entries on YouTube: RESET (656k), Sea of Ash (283k), THE PROMPTER (279k), MAKE BELIEVE (146k), City of Light (122k), DRAWN (119k), STILL (58k).
- **CapCut CRE[AI]TE AI Festival** (submissions to 2026-08-10), **Seoul International AI Film Festival 2026**, **Reply AI Film Festival 2026**, **Rome AI Festival**, **Omni International AI Film Festival**.

## Features and series announced or released in 2026 (no video file unless listed)
- **Hell Grind** (Higgsfield, 95 min, Cannes Market, May 2026): file and entry above.
- **Dreams of Violets** (Fountain 0), accepted by Tribeca 2026 as the first fully AI-generated live-action feature at a major festival ([Variety](https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/tribeca-festival-ai-film-dreams-of-violets-fountain-0-1236759724/)). No trailer found.
- **Gods Don't Give Gifts** (Zack London / Gossip Goblin; producer Edward Saatchi, Fable Studio), reported for US theaters Oct. 30 ([NewsNation](https://www.newsnationnow.com/entertainment-news/ai-generated-film-us-theaters-fall/)).
- **Sanxingdui: Future Past**, China's first theatrical film with AI throughout production, release 2026-10-23 ([TechNode](https://technode.com/2026/09/28/chinas-first-ai-produced-theatrical-film-sets-october-23-release/)).
- **The Art of the Future**, a Korean AI-generated feature, theatrical debut May 2026 ([Korea Daily](https://en.koreadaily.com/ai-generated-full-length-film/)).
- **No Big Deal** (ModeLabs.ai sitcom, 2026-09-11): file and entry above.
- Earlier: **DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict** (Hooroo Jackson, 2024), a $405 one-person AI anime feature on Prime Video ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DreadClub:_Vampire%27s_Verdict)). "First AI feature" claims conflict; see lore `first-ai-feature-claims`.

## Viral channels and trends (leads, not yet filed)
- **AI time-traveller vlogs** (The Guardian, May 2026): first-person "I time travelled to..." episodes. "Chloe VS History" has multi-million-view videos (Titanic 2.8M, Tudor London 2.6M) but its descriptions do not state that it is AI, so no file was created.
- **Glorb**: AI-voiced SpongeBob rap channel (1.17M subscribers, hundreds of millions of views per Wikipedia). The voices are AI; the visuals are credited to a human animator.
- **"Harry Potter by Balenciaga (2026)"**: demonflyingfox's 2026 remake (gtnt84CDP-s, 2.0M) and "Part 2 (2026)" (fvfp9L-qU7k, 557k); tools not stated.
- **"That's AI (2026)"**: a 5.5M-view short film whose description says "No AI was used", a human-made film about the AI-video moment (mEVl0NS0vu8).
- **AI misinformation channels**: DFRLab (2026-03-23) found about two dozen AI-generated YouTube channels posing as war coverage with nearly two billion views; AI fakes of the Anak Krakatau eruption (2026-09-04) and of an Imran Khan speech (September 2026) were debunked.