2026 · Thursday evening → Friday morningNov 5–6
An AI filmmaking hackathon with a cinema premiere
Come and build a film. We reveal the theme on Thursday evening at Puzl, and you make the film right there. On Friday morning we see it for the first time, together, on the big screen at Cinema City Westend.
The evening runs in Hungarian, with help in English. Your film can be in English too.
Sign up01High agencythe drive to act, and the ability to follow through
You canjust dothings.AF · focus
Making a film used to take a crew, a camera, money and months. Today a laptop and one evening are enough to get started. AI opens up making things to everyone, filmmaking included. The question is no longer whether you can do it, but what you want to make.
What does high agency mean?
A strong inner drive to act, and the ability to see it through. The term comes from our High Agency Workshops. People with high agency don’t wait for permission, a crew or the perfect moment, they just start. Filmathon is one of those evenings, this time with film.
Kamill’s article, in HungarianHigh agency: the superpower of the AI era021925 → 2026
“Everyone is talented.”László Moholy-Nagy, 1929
Moholy-Nagy didn’t claim that everyone would become a genius. He noticed that the camera and film were rewriting what it means to create, and who gets to do it.
It has happened several times since, with light, with code, with the computer. It is happening again: today there is a single evening between an idea and a moving image, and you can make pictures no camera could ever capture.
- 1925László Moholy-NagyMalerei, Fotografie, Film
- 1930László Moholy-NagyLightplay: Black White Gray
- 1937Victor VasarelyZebras
- 1944György KepesLanguage of Vision
- 1956Nicolas SchöfferCYSP 1, a cybernetic sculpture
- 1968Vera Molnárher first computer-drawn works
- 2026Youone film, one evening
The drawings are references to the works, rendered in code, not copies. Filmathon’s circle and bar come from Moholy-Nagy’s pictures: for us the circle is light and the bar is time, the two raw materials of film.
03Open door
Come even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist.
You don’t need a film background or a crew. You need a laptop, an AI subscription you know your way around, and the urge to see what you can put together with your own hands in one evening.
Who is it for?
- graphic designers
- copywriters
- musicians
- photographers
- developers
- marketers
- designers
- teachers
- the curious
- and you
Anyone with a scene in their head that nobody has seen yet, and anyone who’s only just starting to look for one.
04Creative tools and credits
Tonight, ElevenLabs is your studio.
Every creator gets a one-month ElevenLabs Pro plan with 600,000 credits. Image, video, voice, music and editing all live in one place there, so the evening isn’t spent jumping between tools. That’s why we suggest you work in it.
On the night we’ll also help you pick the right model for each scene, so you get the most out of your credits. If another tool works for you, bring it along.
- Image, video
- Kling, Veo and other models in one interface
- Voice
- narration, dubbing, lip-sync
- Music, effects
- score, sound effects, ambience
- Editing
- everything on one timeline
05The evening and the morning
We build at night, we screen in the morning.
On Thursday evening the films get made side by side in one room, and if you get stuck, there’s always someone to ask. On Friday morning we take our seats in the cinema and watch them together on the big screen.
The theme: Thursday, 18:00
There will be a theme, but you only find out on Thursday evening, on site, what your film has to be about. We keep it secret until then, so everyone starts from the same place and nobody can bring a finished film from home.
Thursday, 5 November Build · Puzl CowOrKing
- Arrival
Registration, coffee, activating accounts and credits. Came on your own? This is where you can find a team.
- Kick-off and the theme
We reveal the theme: this is when you find out what your film is about. Experts from Moonrock and TelekomFilm briefly show what turns a few generated shots into a film: framing, rhythm, sound.
- Idea and script
One sentence your film is about, then scenes, shots and sound. You can talk your plan through with the mentors before you start generating.
- Generation
Image, motion, voice, music. This gets the most time, because this is where you wait for the machine and try again. Pizza and beer arrive in the meantime, and the mentors go from table to table.
- Editing
Rhythm, music, subtitles. This is where the shots become a film.
- Submission
Export and upload. The edit room closes at 22:30.
Friday, 6 November Screening · Cinema City Westend
- Intro
Coffee, we take our seats, and a few words on how the films were made.
- Screening
Every film that’s finished and fit to show, back to back, on the big screen.
- Awards and conversation
The award ceremony, then a conversation with the creators.
- Group photo
Everyone in front of the screen. We wrap up at 11:00.
This is our suggested arc. Before the event every participant gets the creator’s guide: how to make a film with AI, some filmmaking basics, and the exact schedule.
06Honestly, with TelekomFilm
We see the AI slop too. That’s why we’re getting closer.
Supporting the event and the creative work
What we don’t want
The same glossy faces, clips about nothing, a feed that looks more alike every day. We don’t want to add to it.
What we believe
The same tool is also a new opportunity. At AI Budapest we believe you have to get close: pick it up, try it, see what it’s good for and how. You can’t learn that from the news, only by doing.
What we’ll find out
AI video takes a leap every month. This evening will show what can be made today, and where the limits still are: where a face falls apart, what motion still can’t handle, where a human is still needed. We’re curious too.
Technology doesn’t replace having something to say, but it gives more and more people the chance to say it.
TelekomFilm is Magyar Telekom’s film initiative. Through its own productions and co-productions, partnerships and talent development, it supports Hungarian film culture. It backs Filmathon because here, in a single evening, we find out what AI adds to a story and where it still needs a filmmaker’s eye. The next morning, the results are up on the cinema screen.
0722:30 → 09:00
No one sees it until morning.
At 22:30 we close the edit room. Overnight only we look at the films, to check that they play and are fit to show. The jury, the audience and the other teams see them for the first time on Friday morning in the cinema, just as you see theirs.
Let’s watch them together, on the big screen.
One room, one screen
Anything unfinished, of very poor quality, political, or compromising to someone won’t go on screen. Everything else will, because our goal is to watch as many films together as we can.
Just want to watch? There’s a separate ticket for the Friday screening, HUF 2,000. Audience ticket →
08Rules of the game
Few rules, lots of freedom.
An experimental creative workshop: we give you an arc, tools and professional support, and the film is yours.
Fixed non-negotiable
- Film
- a short film, between one and two minutes
- Image
- made with AI, no own footage or stock
- Theme
- revealed on site, Thursday at 18:00
- Kit
- your own laptop with at least one AI subscription
- Submission
- Thursday, 22:30
Open your call
- Tools
- ElevenLabs with the one-month Pro plan they give you, plus anything that works for you
- Genre
- documentary, animation, music video, horror, whatever the theme can carry
- Team
- solo, or in a team of up to three
- Language
- the evening runs in Hungarian, we’re happy to help in English, and your film can be in English too
- Pace
- yours
09Awards
Gold, Silver, Bronze Screen.
The jury, the mentors and the audience decide in the cinema. Every member of the podium teams wins a longer ElevenLabs subscription, and we’re working on more prizes. The real prize, of course, is seeing your film on a cinema screen.
10Organizers
We organize, you create.
With AI Budapest we’re building a community that learns and creates together. We believe in democratizing building: anyone can create with AI, and it’s worth exploring together, side by side. That’s what we make room for. We dreamed up Filmathon, but the evening is about your films.
You’re not alone.
Powered by
They made it possible
Westend took up the idea and made Filmathon possible. The Westend Innovation Center team is working with us to turn Thursday’s build night into Friday morning’s cinema premiere.
The craft and the garage
Filmathon isn’t a film festival, and it isn’t a competition for the film industry. Filmmaking is a craft learned over years, and AI doesn’t take that away. For one evening we open a garage: we build, then marvel together at what an idea can become in five hours today. If you don’t make films for a living, this is your chance to try. If you do, you can show what the craft adds.
Professional partner
Moonrock is an animation studio that works on visual effects for feature films, with CG, VFX and AI. Their team will be at Puzl to help if you get stuck with the image, the edit or the language of film.
Drawing on their experience, every participant gets a creator’s guide: how to make a film with AI, plus some filmmaking basics, from framing to the rhythm of the edit.
moonrock.eu11Tickets
Come along, join in, make something.
An experimental creative workshop, with professional support and a community that learns and creates together. The creator ticket includes the creator’s guide, a one-month ElevenLabs Pro plan with 600,000 credits, pizza and beer, merch, and the screening of your film on the big screen the next morning.
Solo or in a team of up to three. AI Budapest member? We’ll email you a discount code.
T–42 days 00:00:00until we start
Questions? kamill@ai-budapest.com
By registering you accept the terms of participation (in Hungarian).
stub Filmathon 26 0000
AI Budapestpresents
Filmathon
An AI filmmaking hackathon with a cinema premiere
powered by
- Organizers
- Kamill Kószó
Norbert Gaál
Ivett Roskovics - Westend Innovation Center
- Patrik Pálvölgyi
Míra Kok
János Taál - TelekomFilm
- Renáta Vaskó
Zsombor Molnár
András Bödör - Moonrock
- Gábor Marinov
Bernadett Dian - Supporting the event and the creative work
- TelekomFilm
- Creative tools and credits
- ElevenLabs
- Professional partner
- Moonrock
- Build venue
- Puzl CowOrKing
- Screening venue
- Cinema City Westend
5–6 November 2026 · Budapest