First Culver Cup AI Filmmaking Competition Announces Top Eight Finalists

The Culver Cup, a GenAI film competition hosted by FBRC.AI and Amazon Web Services (AWS), has announced its Elite Eight finalists.

These innovative films, created using cutting-edge AI tools, will be showcased at a red carpet screening on October 14 at the historic Culver Theater, kicking off LA Tech Week.

The Elite Eight films were selected from a field of 50 projects created over a 3-week period.

The finalists are (in alphabetical order):

• Joey Daoud 

• Maddie Hong

• Borys Kondratenko

• Metapuppet

• Paola Rocchetti

• Krystal Trixx

• Aristomenis Tsirbas

• Matthew Wenhardt

(Disclosure: Joey Daoud is the editor of VP Land)

The Tools and Rules

All 50 participants had a few ground rules and required tools to use when making their films:

• The films had to follow a creative treatment by director David Slade to create unique shorts

• They had to use a 3D diner asset provided by Global Objects.

• They had to use Playbook, a diffusion-based engine for 3D scenes. (Check out our interview with Playbook's creators at AWE)

• And they had to use Luma's Dream Machine to generate video outputs.

The tools had to be used in some fashion in the creation of the video, but they were allowed to use additional tools and techniques. The top two filmmakers will discuss their workflows and processes at the Culver Cup event.

Final Take

The Culver Cup showcases the potential of AI in filmmaking and how it empowers creators to bring their visions to life. As the industry continues to evolve, events like this competition serve as a platform for emerging talent to demonstrate the future of AI utilization in film production.

This event, taking place in Hollywood and during LA Tech Week, highlights the growing interest in AI-driven storytelling and its ability to push the boundaries of traditional filmmaking.