We’re proud to be presenting OMNI, the AI film festival raising the bar for generative cinema

Something interesting is happening in cinema right now, and it is not happening in the places you might expect. While the loudest conversations about AI in film are taking place in studio boardrooms and on social platforms, a quieter and more interesting movement is forming around the filmmakers focused on quality storytelling, those actually using these tools to make something worth watching.

That is the work OMNI exists to put on screen. And in 18 months, it has become the most serious home for it. We could not be prouder to be the presenting sponsor.

The next major edition, OMNI 1.5 “HYPERPHANTASIA,” premieres at The Collider in Sydney on 3 July 2026, with a New York screening to follow later in the year. The partnership spans both events and includes a brand-new award category we have created together, an Envato-led masterclass at the Sydney screening, and a private online screening for the Envato community.

A festival with a curatorial point of view

The category of “AI film festival” is starting to get crowded, so it is worth being specific about what OMNI is.

OMNI is a physically screened, curated festival founded in 2024. Previous editions — the 0.5 edition titled “Visions of Tomorrow” and the 1.0 edition titled “Iterations” have screened across Australia, China, Japan, India, and the United States. Both established the thing that matters most: a festival selected and programmed by people with taste, where being shown means something.

The current edition takes its name from hyperphantasia, a neurological condition affecting roughly 1–3% of the population. People with it experience mental imagery so vivid that it rivals what they see with their eyes. It is a precise frame for what is interesting about generative filmmaking. The promise has always been that the picture in your head can finally make it to the screen. The question is what filmmakers do with that promise.

The HYPERPHANTASIA jury is set up to answer it. It is led by Alex Proyas, the director behind I, Robot, The Crow and Dark City, a filmmaker who has spent his entire career working the seam between technology and human imagination, which makes him a near-perfect fit for the brief. The full panel was announced in May 2026. The festival is on track to receive more than 5,000 submissions from filmmakers around the world, and OMNI 1.5 is the first edition to offer cash prizes across its categories.

This is what AI cinema looks like when someone takes it seriously.

Why we’re in

The straightforward version is that OMNI’s editorial bar matches where our audience actually works.

The longer version is that the conversation around AI in creative work is moving quickly, and the loudest voices are not always the most useful for the people actually doing the work. Most filmmakers we talk to are thoughtfully figuring out how AI fits alongside the rest of their craft, the same way every new tool has had to find its place in the kit over time. A festival that puts the focus on the discipline, judgment, and storytelling behind good AI filmmaking is the kind of space this emerging medium benefits from. That is what OMNI is building.

What drew us to OMNI specifically was the seriousness behind the films. There is no shortage of generative work being produced right now, and the bar for what gets shared is low. HYPERPHANTASIA sets a different one. The festival asks filmmakers to bring craft, vision, and intention to a medium that is still figuring out its own language, and then it gives that work a real audience and a real screen. That is the kind of platform we want to help build.

Introducing the Envato Pattern Recognition Award

As part of the partnership, we have worked with OMNI to introduce a brand-new category recognizing the most creative fusion of stock, AI, and cinematic intent.

The name is deliberate. Pattern recognition is the work. It is spotting that a piece of stock footage and an AI-generated sequence can speak to each other. Knowing when a real archival texture will ground a synthetic shot. Treating the seam between sources as a creative choice rather than a problem to hide. The award celebrates filmmakers who use stock and AI-generated content as complementary parts of one toolkit, not as competing sources to choose between, acknowledging the power that real photography brings to generative production.

It sits alongside “HYPERPHANTASIA” Best Picture, Signal to Noise, Best Visuals, Best Score, Best Editing, Best Script, and the newly introduced Golden and Silver AI Performance Awards — the first of their kind to acknowledge outstanding AI performances.

If you’re thinking about submitting, this is your moment

Submissions close on 9 June 2026 at omnifilmfestival.com. OMNI is based in Sydney, and the deadline runs on AEST, so international filmmakers should plan accordingly — the FilmFreeway submission page will show the exact cutoff in your local time. Films must be between one minute and four hours long, and feature at least 90% AI-generated visual content. There are no restrictions on which models, software, or tools you use to get there. The standard $50 USD entry fee has been waived for this edition by an anonymous donor, so the only thing it costs you to enter is the work itself.

A note worth making: the guidelines are intentionally broad on tooling because OMNI is a festival about storytelling first. The films that have been recognized at previous editions have not won because of the models behind them. They have won because someone behind the screen had something to say.

What happens after submissions close

A selection of films will screen in Sydney on the evening of 3 July 2026 at The Collider in Haymarket, alongside an Envato-led masterclass. The New York screening will follow later in the year. The Envato community gets exclusive access to its own private online screening. And after the festival, we will be running winner interviews on the Envato blog.

See you in Sydney.