Curious Refuge - the AI filmmaking education and community platform - runs themed contests rather than a single annual festival. In 2024, the flagship event was the AI Horror Film Contest, hosted in partnership with Infinity AI, with cash prizes and tooling credits as the reward structure. Winners were announced October 29, 2024.
Curious Refuge's broader 2024 programming also included the Frame Forward Animated AI Film Festival and various themed shorter competitions through their AI contests calendar. The educational arm ran multiple competition cycles aimed at students and beginners alongside open-call themed events.
The contest format - tightly themed prompts, strict turnaround windows, and tooling credits as part of the prize - became influential. It is the format that subsequent community-led AI film events (including some Civitai Project Odyssey side awards) borrowed from. For studios, Curious Refuge events are useful as a calendar marker for talent discovery: the winners list each year reliably surfaces new filmmakers worth tracking.