Higgsfield AI, a generative video startup, presented a 95-minute science fiction feature called “Hell Grind” in Cannes on May 21, 2026, during the Cannes Film Festival, and says the film was produced almost entirely with generative AI tools in about two weeks.
The company describes the project as possibly the first full-length feature made primarily with AI rather than conventional production. According to Screen Daily and other outlets covering the presentation, the film cost roughly $500,000 to make, and Higgsfield says about 80 percent of that budget went to computing power rather than to actors, sets or crews.
How it was made
Higgsfield, led by former Snap executive Alex Mashrabov, used its own platform along with third-party video models, including ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, to generate characters, environments and performances, TechNode reported. The company has positioned the film as a demonstration that AI tooling has reached the point where a small team can produce feature-length work on a schedule and budget far below industry norms.
The presentation took place in Cannes while the festival was under way, which led some coverage to describe it as a festival premiere. The festival itself, however, told CineD that the film was not part of any official screening, and Hell Grind was not in the official selection.
A line the festival is drawing
The film’s appearance coincided with reports that Cannes organizers do not consider works generated mostly by AI eligible for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. If applied as reported, that stance would keep AI-made features out of the main competition even as they circulate at industry events on the sidelines.
The project raises questions that the film industry has been debating since the 2023 Hollywood strikes: what happens to the jobs of animators, editors, visual effects artists and performers if feature films can be assembled in weeks, and whether AI-generated work can deliver the emotional range that audiences expect from cinema. Hell Grind does not settle those questions, but it gives the industry a concrete example to argue over.
