World’s first fully AI-generated feature film premieres at Cannes Film Festival

In a development that could reshape conversations around the future of cinema, a feature-length film created entirely using artificial intelligence premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, marking what its creators describe as a first for the industry.

Titled Hell Grind, the 95-minute science-fiction film was produced by Higgsfield AI and reportedly took a team of 15 people just two weeks to complete. The project cost around $500,000, with roughly $400,000 reportedly spent on computing resources.

The film’s production cost stands in sharp contrast to traditional studio projects. For comparison, The Mandalorian and Grogu reportedly had a production budget exceeding $160 million.

Presented by the San Francisco-based company as “the world’s first AI feature film,” Hell Grind combines fantasy and science-fiction themes with heavy action elements. The story revolves around a conflict involving angels, demons and mythical forces, with a trailer depicting large-scale battles and visually stylised combat sequences.

However, the production process involved considerably more than simply entering a short text prompt into an AI system.

According to the creators, the team generated scenes through highly detailed prompts that included cinematic specifications such as camera lens settings, motion blur effects and visual style instructions. Each prompt reportedly averaged thousands of words and generated only around 15 seconds of usable footage, requiring extensive iteration to build a full-length narrative.

Company founder Alex Mashrabov said the project aimed to demonstrate that AI systems can now maintain consistency in characters, visual worlds and story progression over an entire film.

The debut also arrives as artificial intelligence continues to remain one of the most debated subjects in the entertainment industry. Concerns over AI’s impact on jobs and creative ownership were among the issues that contributed to the major 2023 strike by SAG-AFTRA.

At the same time, discussions around AI in filmmaking appear to be evolving. During a Cannes press event, Demi Moore suggested that AI’s growing presence in the industry was unavoidable, reflecting a broader shift in attitudes toward emerging technologies.

The premiere of Hell Grind is likely to intensify ongoing debate over whether artificial intelligence will serve primarily as a creative tool for filmmakers or become a disruptive force capable of fundamentally changing how movies are made.