AIFA AWARDS 2025

What happens when faceless technology is shaped by the hands of the artist? This question sat at the heart of the AIFA Awards 2025, which returned to London this July with films from China to Canada, from Senegal to Scotland. Hosted at the House of Lords, Asprey Studio, and art'otel London Hoxton, this year's programme brought together a global cohort of filmmakers who are not waiting for permission to tell their stories: they are using AI to map out an entirely new film landscape.

At a time when AI is so often viewed as a threat to creativity, employment and human agency, the AIFA Awards offer a counter-narrative: one where AI could be the reawakening of an industry; a New Wave born not in Hollywood boardrooms but in cafes, community spaces, kitchen tables and artists' studios; a radical repositioning by those marginalised by a gate-kept system.

An Equitable Future

This year's 14 finalists were selected from over 30 AIFA-qualifying festivals worldwide. Their works are rich with innovation: witty deepfakes subverting gender hierarchies; discarded robots who preserve human cultural memory; synthetic production that elevates forgotten stories to re-write history.

"The core issue is the incredibly high barrier to entry in traditional filmmaking," said Senegalese filmmaker and finalist Hussein Dembel Sow. "With synthetic production, I can democratise access to high-end visual storytelling and position authentic African narratives on the global stage."

This is what we mean when we talk about equity: not just in who gets to make films, but in how stories are made, where they are shown, and who owns their impact. From the seductive worlds of Junie Lau to the gentle poetry of Hossein Aleem and Sow's epic visuals, AIFA is proud to champion those who elevate film production with newly available technology - and thereby challenge the power structures of major studios.

Honouring Innovation

The AIFA Awards recognise those at the forefront of this New Wave. Junie Lau took home the Best Film prize: a generous cash award plus a distribution and financing package from the digital art platform Sedition. A special Innovation Award sponsored by Aria went to Simon Ball's hybrid drama The Future Can Be Yours. Aleem Hossain's Do Bangladroids Dream of Electric Tagore? claimed Best Narrative sponsored by Vultr, while Diego Maclean and Fouzi Louahem took home Best Visuals and Best Sound respectively. The Jury of industry pioneers also commended the films of Hussein Dembel Sow, Roxanne Ducharme and Rachel Maclean.

Alongside the Finalists were this year's Featured Artists Sheldrick and Ethereal Moon, whose commercial success with highly experimental films demonstrate the industry's appetite for a new paradigm.

AIFA Awards 2025 ceremony held at art'otel London Hoxton. Photo: AIFA / Michael Tomlinson 2025

Reframing the Creative Industries

Simply honouring innovation is not enough. This new paradigm needs a new framework to secure the trust and investment needed to survive. In the wake of the UK's Data Use and Access Act 2025, AIFA convened artists, investors, founders, curators, policymakers and technologists to envision a future for the creative industries. Gathered at the House of Lords, they discussed new ways to protect and police IP and authorship, to incentivise investment so that artists benefit, and to encourage radical and creative experimentation.

"If we want to be the best place in the world to start, scale and grow an AI company, we must also be the most trusted. Trust is not built through ambition alone; it is built through transparency, fairness, respect for the rule of law and the protection of intellectual property."

Samantha Niblett MP

AIFA policy roundtable at the House of Lords. Photo: AIFA / Michael Tomlinson 2025

The technology for this already exists, from blockchain tracking of royalties to AI-powered identification of copyright infringement. But it is not truly viable until it is adopted at scale by those at the heart of the creative industries. This must come from the artists themselves, those whose work drives the underlying models and opens up new horizons for innovation.

The Work Ahead

And so we continue to build AIFA to position artists and cultural leaders at the centre of this future. We do this with the support of our partners: WIRED Summer Lab, Vultr, Aria Protocol, art'otel London Hoxton, Asprey Studio, Sedition, Muse Frame, NOPRBLM, Innovate UK, NFC Summit, Factory4 and many others.

Together, we can build a positive future for creativity.

AIFA Awards finalists and jury members at Asprey Studio. Photo: AIFA / Michael Tomlinson 2025