Challenge Guidelines
Everything you need to enter the Qolaba AI Film Challenge in one place. The four tracks, how submission works, the six week timeline, the prize breakdown, the judging criteria, and the official rules. Read this once before you post your entry.
01Overview
The Qolaba AI Film Challenge is an open AI creativity contest where participants create and submit original work using Qolaba's AI creative tools.
Choose from one of four tracks
- Film
- Advertising
- Unreal & What If
- A Day With…
Create your work, post it publicly, tag @qolaba, and submit your entry link to participate in the challenge.
The challenge includes multiple submission tracks, a defined timeline, community participation, jury evaluation, and prizes for selected winners.
Free generations
Get 2 free generations to participate. Submit a second entry to unlock a third free generation.
02At a Glance
The essentials in one table. Every row below is expanded in the sections that follow.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Who can enter | Open to anyone who registers for the challenge. No AI experience required. |
| Where | Online. Open to creators worldwide. |
| Tracks | Film, Advertising, Unreal & What If, and A Day With. Every entry picks one track on the submission form. |
| How to enter | Create with Qolaba, post publicly on a supported platform, tag @qolaba, and submit the entry link through the official form. |
| Entries | Up to 2 per participant, 1 mandatory and 1 optional. Both are judged and can be in different tracks. A second post unlocks a third free generation. |
| Timeline | September 1 to October 18, 2026, with submissions, community voting, judging, and final results. |
| Prize pool | Audience Award Grand Prize at $1,500 cash + 1 Year of Qolaba, Audience Second Place at $750 cash + 6 Months of Qolaba, Jury Award Grand Prize at $500 cash + 1 Year of Qolaba, Jury Second Place at $250 cash + 6 Months of Qolaba, and five Special Awards at 3 Months of Qolaba each. |
| Judging | Jury Award, scored against five weighted criteria out of 100. Audience Award, decided by community upvotes. |
03Tracks
Four main tracks run in the challenge. Film and Advertising each cover a few related lanes, Unreal and What If is the wildcard, and A Day With is its own thing. Every entry picks one track on the submission form.
Film
Create a short film, tell a story, or build an entire world.
- Film Formats & Genres
- Storytelling
- World Building
Advertising
Create an ad, a product visual, or a full campaign.
- Advertising
- Product & Design
- Marketing Campaign
Unreal & What If
WildcardImagine a world that could never exist in real life.
- Fictional Mars tourism campaign
- Dream inspired fashion collection
- An entire fictional brand
- Mumbai in 2126
A Day With…
Spend a day inside someone else's story.
- A day as an astronaut
- A day as your pet
- A day in 2150
- A day inside a painting
04Timeline
Five key dates, from the teaser to the results announcement. The same schedule appears on the main page's participant facing roadmap.
- 1August 27
Challenge Teaser
Discover the challenge and get inspired.
- 2September 1 – September 21
Submissions Open
Create and submit your entry from September 1 to September 21.
- 3September 22 – October 4, 11:59 PM UTC
Upvoting Period
Vote for your favourite entries from September 22 until 11:59 PM UTC on October 4.
- 4October 5 – October 17
Judging Period
The jury reviews and scores entries from October 5 to October 17.
- 5October 18
Results Announced
Winners and results are revealed on October 18.
05How to Submit
This is a guide to the process, not a live form. The real entry form lives in-platform and opens once you've started creating.
The 10 steps
- 01Register for the Qolaba AI Film Challenge.
- 02Use your 2 free video series generations to create on Qolaba.
- 03Create an original piece of work.
- 04Publish at least one post publicly on a supported social platform.
- 05Tag the official Qolaba account in the post.
- 06Include the official Qolaba link in the post.
- 07Submit through the official entry form.
- 08Keep the post publicly available until winners are announced.
- 09Optional: publish a second post to unlock a third free generation.
- 10Agree to the official competition terms.
Supported platforms: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook. You only need to publish on one of them. Up to 2 entries per participant (1 mandatory, 1 optional), and both can be in different tracks.
Submission form, field by field
Entry details
- Name
- Creation name — auto filled from your video series name (editable)
- Category (dropdown of all 4)
- Short description (optional)
- Link to social post #1 (mandatory) — tap the “+” to add links if you posted the same video on other platforms too. Extra links are only to verify cross posting; it still counts as one submission.
Legal
- I confirm this is my original work.
- I agree to the competition terms and conditions.
- I consent to Qolaba featuring my submission.
The Qolaba requirement: Qolaba must be meaningfully used in creating your submission, and you should be able to explain how in the form above.
06Prize Pool
Two separate awards run on the same set of entries. The Jury Award is scored against the criteria by our panel; the Audience Award is decided by community upvotes. Each carries its own Grand Prize and Second Place, so there are two of every top prize. Special Awards are given once across the whole challenge, not once per award.
Grand Prize · Audience Award
Most upvoted overall
$1,500 Cash + 1 Year of Qolaba
Second Place · Audience Award
Runner up, most upvoted
$750 Cash + 6 Months of Qolaba
Grand Prize · Jury Award
Highest jury score
$500 Cash + 1 Year of Qolaba
Second Place · Jury Award
Runner up, scored by the jury
$250 Cash + 6 Months of Qolaba
Special Awards
Most Creative · Most Mind Blowing · Audience Choice · Best New Creator · Best Use of Qolaba
3 Months of Qolaba each
Every top prize also includes a social feature, a creator spotlight, a certificate, and a potential Qolaba collaboration. Special Awards are 5 winners in total across the challenge.
07Judging
Every entry is scored by the jury against five weighted criteria, 100 points total. Audience Choice is decided separately by community voting or social metrics, so follower count never influences the main judging.
| Criteria | Points |
|---|---|
| Creativity & Originality | 30 |
| Execution | 20 |
| Storytelling / Communication | 20 |
| Use of AI | 15 |
| Overall Impact | 15 |
| Total | 100 |
08Rules & Eligibility
The core participation rules, repeated here for reference (same source as the How to Submit section above).
Eligibility & entries
- Open to anyone who registers for the challenge, no AI experience required.
- Up to 2 submissions per participant: 1 mandatory, 1 optional. Both are eligible for judging and can be in different tracks.
- Qolaba must be meaningfully used in the creation of every submission.
- Entries must be original work created by the participant.
- Posts must stay publicly available on their social platform until winners are announced.
- Supported platforms: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Facebook. One platform is enough.
09FAQ
Same questions as the FAQ on the main page, shared here for convenience.
Entries are individual. That said, we encourage participants to invite others to join the challenge and create alongside them.
No. Your two entries can be in different tracks. They don't need to match.
Yes. Any creation you made using the Video Series feature, even before September 1, is eligible for submission.
Only the Video Series feature qualifies. Entries made using other Qolaba tools on their own, like standalone video generation or image generation, are not eligible.
No. Your creation needs to be made strictly inside Qolaba. Entries not created on Qolaba will not be validated.
No. You don't need a paid subscription to participate. You get 2 free video series generations to create and submit your entry.
A video series generation is the final assembled video, after all individual clips have been generated and combined into one complete piece. The finished, combined video is what's eligible for submission, not the individual clips.
Minimum 10 seconds, maximum 100 seconds.
No. Posting the same creation across different social media platforms helps you reach more people and get more upvotes, but it still counts as one entry. You'll link each platform post to the same video series in the submission form.
Yes. You're encouraged to share your creation across social media to boost reach and rank higher on the leaderboard.
Your post needs to stay public for the full duration of the challenge to remain eligible for rewards.
Voting closes at 11:59 PM UTC on October 4, 2026. Votes cast or removed after that moment are not counted.
If two entries end up with the same number of upvotes, the prize amount will be split equally between the tied entries.
A valid post is a publicly visible post on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, or Facebook that contains your Qolaba generated creation, tags @qolaba, uses #CreatedWithQolaba, and includes the official Qolaba challenge link. Posting on more than one platform is welcome but not required. Keep the post public until winners are announced.
10Contact
Questions about eligibility, submissions, or the entry form? Reach us by email, or follow along on social for updates while the challenge is running.