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xAI's Odyssey AI Video Contest: Launch to Winners

xAI launched a $100,000 Grok Imagine contest themed on Homer's Odyssey in early September. Winners were announced just days later, with @NemPerez taking the top prize for a 5-minute short film.

2026-09-03 ~ 2026-09-05 · 2 episodes · 8 posts

Episode 1 · xAI's Odyssey Grok Imagine Contest Offers $100K Top Prize (2026-09-03, 6 posts)

xAI's official account launched a Grok Imagine contest themed on Homer's Odyssey, asking creators to submit videos built with the tool's video and voice generation by quoting the official post, with $100K, $50K and $25K prizes for the top three.

Confirmed

  • The contest was launched by xAI officially, limited to Odyssey scenes, submitted by quoting the original post.
  • Prize structure: $100K first, $50K second, $25K third.
  • Multiple entries are public, including the 5-minute short "Odyssey Entered the Underworld" and "Ogygia — Isle of Calypso".
  • Creator NemPerez released a 5-minute Odyssey adaptation, calling it his most complex and longest work, also using Grok for scripting and research, and restoring the Phaeacians and Princess Nausicaa cut from the recent live-action film.
  • Entrant mackaybell shared a behind-the-scenes video of an "Athena, the bow, the hall" piece made with hypergeekstudio that did not win; he said he never expected to.

Why it matters

It is a direct marketing move to promote Grok Imagine, and the prize pool drew many creators, making the entries public samples of the product's actual generation quality.

Episode 2 · xAI unveils Imagine Odyssey contest winners, $100K grand prize awarded (2026-09-05, 2 posts)

xAI's Grok Imagine announced the winners of its Imagine Odyssey contest, with @NemPerez taking the $100,000 grand prize for a 5-minute Odyssey-inspired short film, alongside winners @MrAllenT and @JSFILMZ0412.