DISRUPT says 487 AI film entries, but only 73 of last year's were Australian

TBWA Australia's DISRUPT AI Film Festival says its second edition drew 487 entries, up 31% from 371 in 2025, the agency announced on Tuesday 10 November. A 12-person jury chaired by TBWA creative chief Paul Reardon has judged the films, and winners will be named at The Capitol in Melbourne on Wednesday 18 November.

That number tells you how far the call reached, not how big Australia's AI film scene is. The festival only awards Australian residents, and the white paper it published with Deakin and Swinburne universities counts just 73 Australian films among last year's 371, with overseas entries outnumbering them more than four to one. The release does not say how many of this year's 487 can actually win. The prize also shrank: A$2,500 per award this year, down from the $5,000 TBWA says each 2025 winner received.

What the festival announced

Entry was free and closed on Friday 16 October. Four awards (Best Short, Best Long, Best Student and a Grand Prix picked from the three category winners) each pay A$2,500, a pool of A$10,000. Google, Indeed and BMW are the named sponsors, and the law firm Holding Redlich reviewed every shortlisted film before final judging. A Creators' Day at Swinburne runs on Tuesday 17 November, and a Sydney screening follows the Melbourne gala on Tuesday 24 November.

Reardon said the jury kept returning to decision-making over tool power: "What this year's entries make a case for is something different: the human in the lead." He also said the jump in quality from 2025 was impossible to miss. The festival has not released a shortlist or any films yet, so there is nothing for us to check that against.

What last year's numbers say

The festival's own 2025 data is more useful than its headline. Of 371 entries, 73 were Australian, 38 of those were shortlisted and four won. Only 6 of the 73 Australian entries came from students, which the white paper reads as film schools falling behind. The 487 figure comes from the organizer alone: FilmFreeway does not publish entry counts, and Campaign Brief, LBB and AdNews all ran the same release text, so three headlines are one source.

If this year's split matches last year's, roughly 95 to 100 of the 487 entries would be Australian. That is our estimate, not a festival number, and TBWA has not broken it out. The prize math moved the other way. The June 2025 launch release promised a purse of A$15,000, and a TBWA Australia LinkedIn post in December 2025, which we saw only as a search preview, congratulated four winners on $5,000 each. Leonardo.Ai, a 2025 sponsor, is not named among this year's sponsors.

Who is judging

The jury reads like a room of people who buy creative work. It includes Reardon and Tessa Conrad of TBWA, Stephen de Wolf of Clemenger BBDO, two Google leads from Australia and New Zealand (Google is also a sponsor), the head of the marketers' association ADMA, the federal government's national AI office and the Tech Council of Australia. Two working filmmakers sit on it: Clayton Jacobson and Bruce Hunt, who won Best Short Film last year. Two of the white paper's academic authors, Luke Heemsbergen and Max Schleser, are judges too. Sponsor seats are normal at an agency-run festival, and for a maker that is the point: your film gets in front of commissioners, not a cinephile jury.

The fine print

The release says limited tickets are still available for the gala events, but the festival's own site says the awards showcase is invite-only and attendance is by invitation. Treat Melbourne as a closed industry night unless TBWA says otherwise.

Free entry has a price in data. The FAQ asks entrants to list their tools, key prompts and how they used them creatively. The terms allow entrants' personal details and entry information, including the AI tools used, to be disclosed to sponsors and partners, including for promotional and marketing purposes. Last year's entries became the white paper's dataset. Winners are expected in Melbourne, and the terms do not guarantee travel costs.

What it means for AI creators

• Your odds are set by eligible entries, not by 487. Last year 73 Australian films competed for 38 shortlist spots, which is a far better ratio than the headline suggests.
• The real prize is the room. A free entry puts an Australian maker in front of agency creative chiefs and Google's creative partnerships team, and that is worth more than A$2,500.
• Your workflow is part of the entry fee. Prompts and tool lists can go to sponsors, so decide before entering which parts of your process you are happy to share.

Our take

DISRUPT is a genuine door for Australian AI filmmakers, and the festival publishes better research than most. That is exactly why the 31% growth line falls flat: the same people who counted 73 Australian entries last year know this year's number and chose to lead with the global total. Publish the eligible count, and the story gets more honest and more interesting.

Timeline

• Date: Mon 16 Jun 2025. Event: Festival launches; release promises a A$15,000 prize purse; Source: DISRUPT news room
• Date: Wed 26 Nov 2025. Event: First gala at ACMI, Melbourne; 371 entries, four winners; Source: LBB, B&T, 2025 festival report
• Date: Tue 2 Dec 2025. Event: TBWA Australia post says each of four winners received $5,000; Source: TBWA Australia LinkedIn (search preview only)
• Date: Mon 25 May 2026. Event: White paper with Deakin and Swinburne released: 73 of 371 entries Australian; Source: DISRUPT news room, Swinburne figshare
• Date: Mon 15 Jun 2026. Event: 2026 submissions open on FilmFreeway, free; Source: DISRUPT site and terms
• Date: Fri 16 Oct 2026. Event: Submissions close; Source: DISRUPT site and terms
• Date: Tue 10 Nov 2026. Event: Release: 487 entries, full jury and program; Source: Campaign Brief, LBB, AdNews
• Date: Tue 17 Nov 2026. Event: Creators' Day at Swinburne, Hawthorn; Source: Humanitix event page
• Date: Wed 18 Nov 2026. Event: Winners named at The Capitol, Melbourne (invite-only); Source: DISRUPT site
• Date: Tue 24 Nov 2026. Event: Sydney screening; Source: Release

Sources and what is unconfirmed: festival release via Campaign Brief, 10 Nov 2026 (same text in LBB and AdNews); DISRUPT site, FAQ and terms and conditions; white paper Creative AI as National Infrastructure (Deakin, Swinburne and TBWA Australia, CC BY 4.0, Swinburne figshare); DISRUPT 2025 report and June 2025 launch release. The 487 total is organizer-reported, the eligible 2026 count is not public, and the $5,000-per-winner figure comes from a LinkedIn post we read only as a search preview.