A 95-minute sci-fi heist film created entirely with generative AI premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
'Hell Grind' screened on May 21, 2026, at Cinema Olympia in Cannes. Higgsfield AI produced the feature with a team of 15 directors, directors of photography, and editors who completed the work in 14 days.
Total production costs stayed under $500,000, including approximately $400,000 spent on AI compute resources. Traditional films of comparable scope typically require budgets around $50 million.
Director Aitore Zholdaskali led the project. Adilkhan Yerzhanov, a two-time participant in the Cannes Official Programme, co-wrote the screenplay.
Alex Mashrabov, founder of Higgsfield AI, described the achievement. "We just premiered at Cannes our first 95-minute feature film made entirely on Higgsfield. A team of 15 professional directors, DPs, and editors made it on Higgsfield in 14 days for under $500K. This is the first AI film to demonstrate that AI can now sustain character consistency, world coherence, and narrative arc across a complete feature."
The Wall Street Journal reported details of the production costs, timeline, and screening. Page Six covered the industry presentation during the festival. Screen Daily outlined the creative team and confirmed the full screening date at Cinema Olympia.
The event highlighted technical progress in maintaining visual and narrative continuity over feature length. Attendees viewed the complete film in a standard cinema setting without noted interruptions from generation artifacts.
Higgsfield AI positioned the project as proof that current tools can support end-to-end feature production. The company released an official trailer on YouTube ahead of the Cannes screening.
Industry observers noted the compressed schedule and reduced budget as significant departures from conventional pipelines. No additional public screenings or distribution plans were announced at the time of the premiere.
