/// Conference 2026 //////////
Where AI and Industry meet
September 13, 2026 from 10 - 6pm at the Wirtz Center in downtown Chicago. Look forward to a day of movies, panels, industry experts, experimental art exhibitions and networking
Meet your awards
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Audience Choice
Chosen by you. All festival attendees will have the opportunity to rank their favorite films. To the winner go the spoils. -
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Golden Squid
The Grand Jury Prize. Awarded to the best film at the festival, selected by a jury made up of artists and industry experts
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Best Worldbuilding
Awarded to the film that creates the most immersive, original, and fully realized cinematic universe through innovative use of emerging technologies and storytelling. -
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Best Ethicist
A one of a kind AI FF award - The Ethicist is awarded to the best film turning a mirror on the conversations of AI and similar technological advances
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Best Storyboarding
Awarded to the film that crafts the most compelling and cohesive world through imaginative design, atmosphere, culture, and storytelling. -
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Best previsualization
Awarded to the project that most effectively uses visual planning and prototyping to shape, communicate, and elevate the cinematic vision before production.
September 13th from 10am - 6pm at the Wirtz Center in Downtown Chicago, 710 Lake Shore Drive.
The Token Conference 2026 explores how creatives are both utilizing AI and protecting themselves from it. On September 13th, artists, filmmakers, and thinkers will come together to examine how new technologies are reshaping creative practice. Join us for a day of films, art, and conversation that takes a closer look at what it means to make art in the age of AI.
The 2026 festival is a cultural conversation built around collections of short films created with artificial intelligence tools. audiences purchase tickets to juried blocks of shorts designed to explore a central theme or question emerging from the intersection of cinema and machine learning.
2026 speakers
Dr. Aymar Jean "AJ" Escoffery
Faculty Director, MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises at Northwestern University. Co-founder, OpenTV
Rick Morris
legal scholar in entertainment law, Northwestern University School of Communication
Ignacio Fernandez Cruz
director, OrgFutures Research Lab, northwestern university professor
Dr. Kara Rodby
Forbes 30U30 Energy, Principal at Volta Energy Technologies, Founder of Lost The Plot
Liviu Pasare
Principal at Stoptime.live projection mapping Artist
Mathilda Shortridge
Multimedia Artist, reached organic general intelligence around 2024
Miles Wernick
Creative Technologist and AI expert
Jake Trussell
Cultural Strategist
Creative Director at Build art Make Change
programs extends beyond the screen. Researchers, technologists, artists, and critics will converge for live conversations, talks, and panel discussions that examine how AI is impacting authorship, storytelling, labor, and imagination itself.
PRIVILEGING CRAFT 〰️
ALGORITHMS SECOND 〰️
PRIVILEGING CRAFT 〰️ ALGORITHMS SECOND 〰️
Not Just Another AI Film Festival
Bloomers Over Zoomers
The festival embraces a bloomer mentality: cautiously optimistic about AI’s role as a creative collaborator that can work alongside and integrate with traditional media. It celebrates innovation while thoughtfully engaging with the cultural and ethical concerns of a rapidly changing world
Talks Talks Talks
The future is always being charted. The festival focuses on building dialogue with leaders in traditional film and television—storytellers, directors, and creatives—because our goal is not merely to spotlight new technology, but to advance it with intention, craft, and purpose
Storytelling
Storytelling anchors Token, guiding every selection and theme. It ensures technology serves narrative, not spectacle, connecting AI, creators, and audiences through human experience.
Chicago
Token AIFF is rooted in the midwest while being International in scale. We aim to reflect this beautiful city of ours through the festival.
exploring where AI thrives… and where it doesn’t
Creating room for nuance in a landscape addicted to hype
Privileging intention over automation
What to Expect
A curated cinematic experience built around collections of short films created with artificial intelligence tools. Rather than single screenings, audiences will purchase tickets to thoughtfully programmed blocks of shorts — each running approximately 60 to 120 minutes — designed to explore a central theme, aesthetic, or question emerging from the intersection of cinema and machine intelligence.
Each program extends beyond the screen. Filmmakers, technologists, artists, and critics will join for live conversations, talks, and panel discussions that examine not just how AI is being used as a tool, but how it is reshaping authorship, collaboration, storytelling, labor, and imagination itself (for better or worse).
❋ The Films
Curated collections of AI-enabled short films that push narrative and authorship into new cinematic territory
❋ The Conversations
Post-screening talks and panel discussions centering how artists are working with AI creatively, critically, and ethically
❋ The Makers
Direct engagement with filmmakers and creative technologists redefining what authorship means in the age of machine collaboration
❋ The Questions
A space for rigorous inquiry into how artificial intelligence is reshaping storytelling, labor, aesthetics, & cultural power