The +RAIN Film Festival, the first festival in Europe for films generated using intelligence (AI), organized by Pompeu Fabra University through the UPF Arsenal initiative and the UPF Barcelona School of Management, has just closed the deadline for submitting films, with a high level participation by filmmakers. In all, 48 submissions of AI-generated films have been received from 15 different countries.

Submissions from Germany, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Spain, the United States, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Turkey and China demonstrate the great interest in the event and the degree of internationalization achieved so far.

The +RAIN Film Festival, as explained by its director, Jordi Balló, “is most important as it is the first of this kind to be held in Europe, following on from the two competitions held so far in New York and Los Angeles”. Balló added that “we are the protagonists of a new intellectual and creative adventure to set off on a path that has been little explored so far; to discover what it means to make films using artificial intelligence, and we must be open to how formats that are created from now on might surprise us”.

Now, a committee of experts will select the films that will participate in the final phase of the festival, which will take place on Wednesday 14 June on the UPF Poblenou campus. The selected films will be eligible for one of the three awards of the Festival. In addition to the financial endowment for the winners, the creations will also be shown at Sónar+D 2023 conference on art, science and digital culture on 15 and 16 June, and at the Artificial Intelligence exhibition organized by the CCCB, as of October 2023.

In addition, at the +RAIN Film Festival, though not competing, a sample of films will be screened from the Runway AI Film Festival, the first festival in the world of cinema generated with AI, held in February 2023 in New York, organized by the AI-video editing company and partner of +RAIN. Films created with generative artificial intelligence in recent years will also be screened in a retrospective section.

The films generated with AI will be as much the protagonists at the +RAIN Film Festival as their creators. For this reason, a series of colloquia will be organized with the filmmakers, who will share their creative processes to reflect on the transformative nature of AI.

A festival that explores the potential of AI from a multifaceted perspective

+RAIN, an acronym for research in AI narratives, not only seeks to explore films generated with artificial intelligence and their possibilities and aesthetic, ethical and political implications but it also aims, through various sections, to bring creation with AI closer to all audiences.

The RESEARCH section will take the form of an international research conference on the future of AI in the creation of digital content and its impact on the media sector. It will deal with aspects such as the narrative capacity of creation with AI, its ethical use, creativity, copyright, and the redefinition of the actual concept of author. It will enjoy the participation of recognized experts in the study of the impact of AI in the field of art and communication, such as Joanna Zylinska and Víctor Pérez, as well as developers of film creation and editing tools such as Cristóbal Valenzuela, of Runway, and Jorge Caballero.

The FAIR will be a space for connection and exchange between filmmakers and audiovisual creation professionals working with AI with producers and companies in the audiovisual and technology sectors. This fair will connect international profiles that resort to AI in their production processes. It is a unique opportunity to obtain a mapping of the most outstanding works in the field of narrative and experimentation, exchange impressions and challenges, and position oneself in the face of the changes that AI is generating in the audiovisual industry.

Finally, LIVE will be a performance musical and audiovisual event of proposals with AI. It will turn the spaces of UPF’s Poblenou campus into a space to enjoy musical and audiovisual works that start from processes of research and experimentation with AI, as well as the aesthetic and narrative possibilities of the creation of AI models and live coding.

Analysis of the impact of AI and new technologies in the cultural and creative industries

Parallel to the +RAIN Film Festival, and within Sónar+D 2023 programme on 15 and 16 June, the AI & Web3 Creatives Summit will be held. The event, promoted by UPF Ventures and Sónar+D, and co-organized with Pompeu Fabra University and the UPF Barcelona School of Management, will showcase the emerging talent that undertakes, researches and creates with new technologies. It is defined as an “anti-disciplinary meeting” where, through four sessions, the impact of AI on creativity and emerging technologies in cinema, music, expanded media and web3 will be analysed.

Emerging companies and newly created spinoffs, creative and applied research projects will be presented there. These sessions will gather renowned artists, creative technologists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, makers and hackers in Barcelona to participate in a carefully selected programme focusing on inspiration and networking.