AI for Good Film Festival 2026: 1,300 Submissions, 10 Finalists, Geneva July 9

The ITU's AI for Good Film Festival received more than 1,300 submissions for its 2026 edition, selecting 10 finalists from filmmakers across Brazil, Italy, Egypt, Sudan, Japan, Thailand, Belgium, Spain, China, and South Korea. The finalist screenings take place July 9 in Geneva, during the AI for Good Global Summit.

The Festival at Scale

AI for Good is organized by the ITU, the International Telecommunication Union, a UN specialized agency based in Geneva. The film competition invites filmmakers to submit work exploring how AI is being used to address global challenges.

The 1,300+ figure covers open submissions received from around the world. Finalists were notified by June 1, 2026, following jury review. The 10 films selected represent filmmakers from every inhabited continent except Oceania and North America.

The Ten Finalists

Each film screens July 9, followed by a live director presentation and jury discussion. The finalist films, directors, and countries of origin:

Film	Director(s)	Country
AVIÃO	Mohamed Beriky	Brazil
UNSEEN	Erika Taranto	Italy
Another Day	Saifeldin Hamza, Omar El-Naggar, Hadi Bakhit	Egypt / Sudan
UTILITY	Yuichi Ono	Japan
The Homo Sapiens Family	Vic Wanchana Intrasombat	Thailand
Cluster	Grégoire Dessy, Ben Dessy, Juan van den Branden	Belgium
The Star Shepherd	Xuan Li, En Lei	China
Plastic Erosion	Yifei Li, Zheng Bao	China
Gurbet	Violeta M. Valcheva	Spain
Between Steps	Yoona Park, Sion Kim, Minwoo Park	South Korea

The geographic reach is notable. Another Day is a joint Egypt/Sudan production, and Belgium's Cluster brings together three directors. Two Chinese films made the cut alongside a solo filmmaker from Thailand, a South Korean trio, and Brazil's sole entry.

July 9 in Geneva

The screenings fall on the third day of the AI for Good Global Summit, which runs July 7 through 10. The Summit is the ITU's flagship annual event, drawing government officials, AI researchers, and technologists to the same Geneva campus as the festival screenings.

Each screening is structured to include a live presentation by the director followed by jury discussion. That format gives the festival the character of a symposium: films as a starting point for a conversation about AI's role in society, evaluated in real time.

What the Films Examine

The finalist films span themes of accessibility, healthcare, environmental change, displacement, human connection, and education. The festival's subject is AI in the world around us, not AI as a filmmaking tool. Films selected explore what AI means for humanity as a subject matter.

That framing positions AI for Good differently from the major festival debates in 2026. Venice's jury, led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, is approaching AI in film through the lens of artistic questions about authorship and representation. At Taormina, Gore Verbinski argued for mandatory AI disclosure in theatrical releases.

AI for Good sidesteps both conversations by design. Its filmmakers are using cinema to say something about AI in the world, which places them outside the disclosure and authorship debates entirely.

Filmmakers who want to develop AI video work before submitting to events like this can use the AI FILMS Studio video workspace.

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Sources

ITU / AI for Good | PR Newswire | Variety | The Guardian