First AI-Produced Feature Film Screens at Cannes, Made With Higgsfield
Hell Grind, billed as the first 90-minute feature film produced end-to-end using a single AI video platform, is screening at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The film was co-written with Adilkhan Yerzhanov, a filmmaker with two prior credits in Cannes' official programme, and made using Higgsfield AI's generation tools throughout production.
The production involved 15 people - directors, cinematographers, and editors - who collectively generated more than 16,000 video clips to arrive at 253 final shots for the first episode alone. The budget came in at just under $500,000, which Higgsfield says represents the cost of the AI generations themselves. The company claims a comparable production using traditional methods would cost over $50 million, though that comparison involves assumptions about production scale and scope that are not fully specified.
Hell Grind is not the only AI-adjacent project at Cannes this year. Films including "Hyperia" and "b" are part of the Cannes Film Market, and the festival is hosting panels on AI with figures including director Darren Aronofsky. The presence of multiple AI-produced or AI-assisted works at Cannes suggests the festival is navigating rather than avoiding the question of where these productions fit in the landscape of cinema.
The film's existence is a data point about what is now technically and financially achievable with current AI video tools, regardless of how one evaluates the creative or ethical dimensions. The involvement of an experienced festival filmmaker as co-writer also distinguishes it from fully automated content, positioning it as a human-directed AI production rather than a fully autonomous generation.
