AI short 'The Last Span' wins Astana fest award; video gen took just 1 of 6 weeks
lmoroney · x · 2026-10-14
Chinese team 2xLabs won Best Story at the first Astana AI Film Festival (8,067 submissions from 125 countries) for its 17-minute AI fantasy short The Last Span, taking a $50,000 prize.
The film, inspired by traditional Chinese culture, follows a girl crossing a river to find her mother while villagers finish building a bridge. A team of 10+ spent about six weeks producing it — video generation took just over one week. Executive director Wang Yuchen said most time went into refining the script and visual style.
Practical takeaway for first-time AI filmmakers: block most of the schedule for script drafts and style frames, and leave generation for the final week or so.
Related event: Chinese team 2xLabs wins Best Story at Astana AI Film Festival(2 posts)→
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