Curious Refuge's 2025 calendar was anchored by the AI Horror Film Competition with a $9,000 cash prize pool, alongside the Frame Forward Animated AI Film Festival and rolling themed competitions through the year. The format remained the same as 2024 - themed prompt, defined turnaround window, cash plus tooling-credit prizes - but the prize pool grew and the ecosystem of partnered AI tooling sponsors expanded.
Looking at Curious Refuge's 2025-2026 transition, the 2026 Feel Good AI Film Competition was announced with a $10,000 cash prize, signalling continued growth in both pot size and theme variety. For studios building hiring pipelines, the Curious Refuge competition cycle is the most reliable monthly-cadence source of community-vetted AI filmmaker work; the winners and finalists lists across themed events tend to map onto talent showing up in commissioned commercial work 6-12 months later.