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Latvian filmmaker Nikolay Shestak's "The First Honest Day" won the Grand Prix and a $450,000 prize at the Astana AI Film Festival, Qazinform reported Sunday.
Kazakhstan hosted the festival for the first time in its capital, Astana, in Central Asia. Qazinform described it as the "world's largest international competition for AI-generated film." The festival received 8,067 entries from 125 countries, and only 25 films advanced to the final. It ran from Oct. 1 to 3, according to Xinhua.
India's "SITARA" took second place and $200,000, while Spain's "Looking For Perseida" placed third and won $100,000.
An international jury evaluated the finalists. It included former UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and investor Balaji Srinivasan. Media outlet El.kz reported that the panel also included representatives of the Chinese film industry.
Kazakhstan's Myrzakhan Zhumakhan won the Best Character award for "It Was Just a Joke." The comedy follows a dog and its owner's brother, whose prank escalates into a full-scale conflict.
The festival offered a total prize and support fund of $2 million. Half was allocated to awards, and the remainder was set aside to support promising AI teams and the development of film production in Kazakhstan.
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