The Astana AI Film Festival (AAIFF 2026), an international festival showcasing films created using artificial intelligence, is being held in Astana from October 1 to 3, El.kz reports .
On October 2 and 3, audiences will have the opportunity to view the competition entries of 25 finalists of the international competition at the Chaplin Cinema in the MEGA Silk Way shopping and entertainment center. The finalists were selected from 8,067 submissions received from 125 countries worldwide.
Finalists from various countries have already arrived in Kazakhstan to participate in the festival. The competition programme features works by filmmakers and creators from the United States, Canada, Italy, South Korea, China and Kazakhstan.
The festival’s total funding amounts to USD 2 million. Of this amount, USD 1 million, provided by the Shapagat Corporate Foundation of Freedom under Freedom Holding Corp., will be distributed among the festival winners as prize money. A further USD 1 million has been allocated as investment capital for promising AI teams to support the development of AI production capabilities and the AI ecosystem in Kazakhstan. The investment was provided by entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, former Chief Technology Officer of Coinbase, former General Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and founder of The Network School.
The Astana AI Film Festival is being held in Astana from October 1 to 3 as part of AI Month, a month-long initiative bringing together a series of events dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Screening Venues
The competition films will be screened on October 2 and 3, 2026, at Chaplin Cinema, located on the second floor of the MEGA Silk Way shopping and entertainment center in Astana, at 62 Kabanbay Batyr Avenue.
Tickets for the public screenings are available through Kino.kz and Freedom SuperApp.
