(Yicai) Nov. 12 -- IQiyi has hosted its first awards ceremony for short films created using artificial intelligence, handing the top prize to a work completed in just 10 days. The popular Chinese streaming site also unveiled an AI Theatre channel to bring AI-generated dramas from the lab to mainstream audiences.

The contest attracted submissions from 2,300 creators in more than 30 countries. Eleven received prizes at the awards ceremony held on Nov. 10, with one first prize, three second prizes, five third prizes, and special gongs for best creative and best narrative works.

The contestants had to submit films of one to five minutes in length, created with two leading AI tools -- ByteDance’s Doubao video generator Seedance 1.0 Pro and Google’s Veo 3 -- which were provided free of charge. Submissions opened on July 15.

The first prize went to a work titled ‘Under the Fireworks Lies My Home’ by Chen Youxue, who has been making films for more than a decade. At the ceremony, he said that it took him just 10 days to complete the short movie.

“AI makes it possible to realize ideas that couldn’t be filmed before,” Chen said. “It turns concepts that could be written but were hard to shoot into reality.”

Two of the three second-prize winners were ‘A Tree’s Fantasy’ by Wen Ye and ‘Alaya’ by Pan Yu.

Creators largely frame AI as a collaborator rather than a substitute. While human-AI competition will become the norm, AI will help us to break the loop of endless second-guessing and push us to surpass ourselves, Pan noted. Transcendence is AI’s greatest inspiration, but coexistence will remain its unchanging premise, he added.

“No matter how powerful AI becomes, it is still humans who drive it,” said Li Dan, who represented the team behind ‘White Steed,’ another entry. “Human emotion remains the most precious element.”

The competition attracted strong interest not only from creators in the animation, movie, and publishing industries, but also from individual creators and fans. “These AI short films prove that a professional background is no longer a barrier to creation in the AI era,” said Wen, who works as a full-time designer.

Several gaming and comic studios also submitted works. The head of a Hangzhou-based animation company said it participated to see how good AI dramas can get. It plans to explore this type of content further so as to lower production costs.

After seeing the video submissions, Jennie Shi, an AI technical specialist at Google Cloud, said she was deeply impressed. “If someone tells me today that AI works have no soul, I think that they are biased toward AI,” she noted.

“Don’t wait for AI to be perfect before you start,” Shi suggested.

AI Theater Launch

IQiyi has been investing in AI since 2018, said Xie Danming, vice president and head of the Beijing-based company’s smart platform division. It has already rolled out internal production tools that integrate large language model capabilities directly into its content workflow, Xie explained.

“The AI wave is an opportunity,” Senior Vice President Chen Xiao said at the event, stressing that AI will not undermine the platform’s long-form video strengths but will instead “bring content creation and creativity truly into tight, efficient alignment.”

IQiyi took the awards ceremony as an opportunity to launch its AI Theater channel. It will feature films of more than 15 minutes in length, targeting one of the most challenging areas of traditional film and television production, said Zhu Liang, iQiyi VP and head of its smart platform division.

“This contest was not an end but a beginning,” Xie noted.

“Taking action matters more than standing still,” according to Zhu. “AI is giving rise to a new audiovisual language, not just an upgrade in film technology, but a comprehensive reshaping of production processes, aesthetic paradigms, and organizational structures.”

AI Theater will serve as a dedicated content channel to help cultivate user viewing habits. IQiyi is pushing AI across multiple content types -- animation, comics, drama, and films -- and expects children’s programs to be a key breakthrough area, said Li Zhen, who heads its Dali Studio.

“China should be the place with the highest concentration of AI creators,” first-prize winner Chen concluded. “I hope to see more new AI waves rising on iQiyi that can inspire the next generation to keep innovating.”

Editor: Futura Costaglione