Human vs. AI Film Premiere
Date: September 26, 2026
Time: 11AM, 1PM, 3PM, and 5PM
Format: Short Films
Location:
Delancey Street Screening Room
San Francisco, California USA
Experience one-of-a-kind cinema exploring what happens when human filmmakers and generative AI confront the same creative challenge.
The 2026 Human vs. AI Film Premiere will showcase the nominated short films, special selects, and other notable works from the 2026 Human vs. AI Film Festival. Presented through 4 distinct screening sessions: Joy & Sorrow, Intensity & Serenity, Love & Hate, and Desire & Disgust.
Each session explores a different dimension of human emotion, presenting stories shaped by opposing emotional forces without revealing whether each film was created by a human filmmaker or generative AI.
Joy & Sorrow
A journey through the emotions that lift us up and the experiences that bring us down
The Joy & Sorrow Screening Session explores cinema’s ability to awaken happiness, hope, grief, and emotional release. These short films examine the moments that give life meaning, as well as the losses and hardships that reveal our vulnerability.
From uplifting stories and playful discoveries to deeply moving reflections on separation, memory, and mortality, the session asks how filmmakers create authentic emotional responses and whether audiences experience those emotions differently when a story is created by a human or generated with AI.
Date: September 26, 2026
Time: 11 AM
Length: ~ 100 Min (4~6 films)
Format: Short Films
Location:
Delancey Street Screening Room
Intensity & Serenity
A journey into the forces that erupt within us and the stillness that allows us to regain control
The Intensity & Serenity Screening Session brings together films shaped by emotional rage and restraint. Some ignite anger, frustration, conflict, or resistance, while others create space for calm, contemplation, healing, and inner balance.
By placing these opposing emotional states in conversation, the session examines how pacing, imagery, performance, sound, and narrative tension influence the audience’s emotional state and whether human and AI filmmakers approach emotional control in fundamentally different ways.
Date: September 26, 2026
Time: 1 PM
Length: ~ 100 Min (4~6 films)
Location:
Delancey Street Screening Room
Love & Hate
A journey through the bonds that unite us and the wounds that divide us
The Love & Hate Screening Session explores cinema’s power to create closeness, affection, empathy, discomfort, and emotional resistance. The featured films move through romance, family, friendship, belonging, betrayal, prejudice, fear, and conflict.
Together, they examine how stories can build powerful connections between audiences and characters or deliberately push viewers away. The session also raises a central question of the festival: Can artificial intelligence understand the emotional complexity behind love and hate, or can it only reproduce their outward appearance?
Date: September 26, 2026
Time: 3 PM
Length: ~ 100 Min (4~6 films)
Location:
Delancey Street Screening Room
Desire & Disgust
A journey through the forces that draw us closer and the instincts that drive us away
The Desire & Disgust Screening Session explores cinema’s power to awaken longing, attraction, curiosity, temptation, discomfort, fear, and repulsion. The featured films move through ambition, intimacy, obsession, appetite, temptation, revulsion, moral conflict, and the boundaries of human tolerance.
Together, they examine how stories can make audiences crave what they see or instinctively recoil from it. The session also raises a central question of the festival: Can artificial intelligence understand the complex impulses behind desire and disgust, or can it only reproduce their outward expressions?
Date: September 26, 2026
Time: 5 PM
Length: ~ 100 Min (4~6 films)
Location:
Delancey Street Screening Room
Human or AI?
The short films you will see are either human-produced or an AI-generated. But you will not be told until the end of the film.
Human-Produced Short Films
As AI reshapes film production, it raises existential questions for both the industry and humanity. More than ever, it is crucial to celebrate the unique storytelling, emotion, and creativity that define us as human. Similar to films submitted to conventional film festival, these works demonstrate cinematic craft and originality, but with a deeper purpose as we seek visionary creators dedicated to safeguarding humanity and shaping a flourishing future for the industry.
AI-Generated Short Films
AI-generated films showcase the innovation of AI technology, transforming storytelling and reshaping creativity. We celebrate this technological progress and seek visionary creators who excel in using these tools to craft narratives that not only pass the Turing Test, but also capture the essence of humanity. These films reveal how intelligent machines can help us see human emotion, imagination, and identity in bold, unexpected, and profound ways.
Select screenings may be followed by filmmaker conversations, expert panels, audience discussions, and interactive festival activities exploring the future of cinema, creativity, and generative AI. Such programs will be announced soon.
Each screening session has its own admission time and requires a separate ticket. A four-session package is also available for audiences who wish to experience the complete premiere program.
Delancey Street Screening Room
The nominated films will be screened at San Francisco’s famous Delancey Street Screening Room. Located inside the Delancey Street Foundation’s landmark Embarcadero complex, the venue carries a story that goes far beyond cinema. Delancey Street is one of San Francisco’s most extraordinary social enterprises, built around the idea that people can rebuild their lives through work, responsibility, education, and community. Its Embarcadero Triangle complex was constructed in part by Delancey residents themselves, becoming both a physical home and a symbol of transformation on the San Francisco waterfront.
That makes it a fitting home for the Human vs. AI Film Festival: a festival about emotion, humanity, reinvention, and the future of storytelling. Alongside the film premiere, the evening will feature panel discussions on the future of cinematography, product presentations from cutting-edge tech startups, and a festive networking atmosphere, culminating in the awards ceremony honoring the 2026 Sparknify Humanity Award and the emotion category winners.
Partner With the Future of Cinema
The 2026 Human vs. AI Film Premiere is more than a screening but a live exploration of how emotion, intelligence, and creativity intersect. We invite forward-thinking brands, studios, research labs, and technology companies to join us as sponsors and partners in shaping this conversation. Sponsorships provide curated exposure, experiential activation opportunities, and direct connection with creators and thought leaders defining the next era of film.