Dreamina opens a €40,000 Annecy animation prize pool

• Dreamina opened a global Annecy-linked call for AI animation, and dreamina_ai's open call post set the package at a €40,000 prize pool plus sponsored travel and hotel support for selected winners.
• The program splits into two tracks, and the awards graphic in dreamina_ai's post says three AI animated films and one project proposal will each receive €10,000.
• According to dreamina_ai's submission timeline graphic, entries are open from May 13 to May 30, jury review runs May 31 to June 5, and the on-site Dreamina summit lands at Annecy on June 23.
• dreamina_ai's requirements graphic makes this more specific than a loose creator challenge: short films must be 1 to 20 minutes, completed on or after October 31, 2025, and submitted in 1080p horizontal MOV or MP4 with English subtitles.

Dreamina is tying a model launch to a real festival circuit slot. dreamina_ai's main announcement says the company wants screenings, creator showcases, and industry dialogue at Annecy, while the same post tees up an upcoming model called "Octo" alongside Seedance 2.0. Separately, creators are already posting Seedance 2.0 experiments, from CharaspowerAI's time-freeze car prompt to GenMagnetic's short clip, which gives the open call at least some visible prompt culture to build on.

Dreamina framed the program as a global open call for both finished AI animated works and animation project proposals. The same post says the event will sit inside the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with winning creators flown in for screenings and industry access.

The prize structure is simple:

• 3 winning works in the AI Animated Film track
• 1 selected project in the Animation Project Proposals track
• €10,000 per selected entry
• Flights and hotel support for one representative per winning or selected project
• International media exposure and industry exchange opportunities

The requirements graphic turns the announcement into a usable spec sheet. For the film track, Dreamina asks for original AI-led shorts with no genre restriction, but the files have to be landscape, 1080p, H.264 MOV or MP4, and between 1 and 20 minutes.

For the project proposal track, entrants need two pieces: a horizontal PDF deck with the title, synopsis, team profile, outline, visual concept, production plan, budget, and resource needs, plus a demo video longer than 30 seconds. The judging criteria in dreamina_ai's rules graphic break down into visual style, storytelling, AI use, and overall quality for films, then creative concept, story and visual development, AI integration, and project potential for proposals.

The visible Seedance 2.0 work in the evidence pool skews toward short motion studies, not finished narrative films. CharaspowerAI's post publishes a full prompt for a cyberpunk drift sequence with a time-freeze camera orbit, while GenMagnetic's clip shows another short stylized animation test built with Seedance 2.

A smaller repost from AllaAisling's Seedance 2.0 mention points to another common pattern: Seedance output as the motion layer, then separate upscaling and post work in other tools.

The timeline graphic adds two details that the headline alone does not carry. First, the winners are announced in June before the June 23 on-site event, which leaves a short runway between selection and the summit. Second, Dreamina says the Annecy program is powered by Seedance 2.0 and an upcoming model called Octo, then describes the festival slot as a mix of screenings, creator showcases, and industry dialogue around AI animation.

That makes this open call part contest, part product showcase. The Annecy angle is the unusual bit, because dreamina_ai's main post pitches AI animation directly into one of the medium's most established festival stages rather than keeping the campaign inside social feeds alone.