AI Film Festival Japan 2026 Draws 730+ Entries From 60+ Countries, With ByteDance's Seedance and Suno Leading Tool Usage

Now in its second year, AI Film Festival Japan 2026 held its awards ceremony at Tokyo Innovation Base in the Marunouchi district on November 1, drawing more than 730 submissions from over 60 countries. Short films and animations dominated the entries, with Japan, China, and South Korea collectively accounting for more than half of all submissions — a sign of East Asia's growing footprint in AI-assisted filmmaking. From the full pool, 68 works were selected for official screening and 21 advanced to the final judging round.

ByteDance's video generation tool Seedance was the most widely used AI tool among participants, followed by Suno, the AI music generation platform. Reflecting the expanding role of AI-composed soundtracks, organizers introduced a new AI Film Music and Score category this year; Ayano Kotakagari of Nippon Television's production company NTV AX-ON took the inaugural top prize in that category. Festival founder Kazunori Kurimoto used the occasion to underscore that human creativity — worldview, imagination, and originality — remains the decisive factor in artistic quality, even as generative tools lower the barrier to sophisticated film production.