WAiFF 2026: an international opening, heading for Los Angeles

WAiFF 2026: Los Angeles, the next step for a festival on the move

In October, the World AI Film Festival is also coming to Los Angeles.

When Marco LANDI came to talk to me in 2024 about a slightly crazy project — building an international festival dedicated to creation in the era of AI together — one thing became clear very quickly:

This festival could not be local.

Artificial intelligence is a global revolution.
Creation is too.

A festival conceived from the very beginning as international

From the start, the vision carried by Marco Landi was clear:
to go on the ground.

Not just observing uses from the Internet.
But meeting the creators.
Watching the films.
Understanding the practices.
Listening to the legal and cultural tensions specific to each country.

This is how WAiFF was built as a festival on the move:

• Brazil

• Korea

• Japan

• China

• Cannes

• and now Los Angeles

Each territory reveals another way of using AI.
Another way of inventing images.
Another way of storytelling.

Why Los Angeles?

Los Angeles is not a symbol chosen at random.
It is a nerve center of the global audiovisual industry.

A territory where questions of AI, copyright, production, and economic models are raised with particular intensity.

Going to Los Angeles is not about exporting a model.
It is about confronting practices.
Observing the differences.
Measuring the gaps.

What works in Asia does not always work in Europe.
What emerges in America does not develop the same way elsewhere.

Frameworks change.
Imaginations do too.

Thousands of films, multiple approaches

On these international stages, thousands of submitted films, divided into different categories, allow us to observe:

• distinct visual grammars

• varied technical uses

• sometimes opposing narrative approaches

• legal frameworks with very different balances

This fieldwork is essential.
It allows us to identify emerging talents.
To understand the real dynamics.
To anticipate upcoming tensions.

Cannes, point of convergence

Everything we observe internationally converges in Cannes.

On April 21 and 22, WAiFF will bring together major figures from creation, tech, and cinema at the Palais des Festivals.
Keynotes.
Debates.
Pro-Talks.
Meetings.

Cannes is not a starting point.
It is a peak point.

Los Angeles is part of this continuity:
a festival on the move, with Cannes remaining its center of gravity.

A global dynamic

Before Cannes 2026:

• February 28–29 — São Paulo

• March 6–7 — Seoul

• March 12–13 — Kyoto

• March 20–21 — Wuxi

Then in October:
Los Angeles.

AI is changing everywhere.
Creation is too.

WAiFF travels to understand these transformations.
Cannes becomes its point of convergence.