Ukrainian Wool Animation “The Night Shift” Wins Best Short Animation at AI Film Festival

The Ukrainian short animated film The Night Shift has won the “Best Short Animation” award at the AI International Film Festival, a competition where films are created using artificial intelligence.

According to a press release, the festival's winners were announced on December 14 in Los Angeles, with The Night Shift claiming the top prize in the short animation category. The film, produced by the creative agency Adshot Creative, was praised by the jury for its intimate and textured style.

“This is a quietly stunning piece. The animation style is beautiful in a way that feels felt rather than designed - textured, intimate, and perfectly suited to a film about the thin membrane between life, pain, and the self. There’s a softness to the visuals that makes the heaviness of the subject matter even more affecting,” critics described.

In addition to the Ukrainian film, short films from Switzerland, the US, Germany, Italy, Australia, South Korea, Armenia, France, China, and Israel were also recognized.

“Through this film, we wanted to highlight the significance of consciously engaging with pain as a means to avoid breaking and to find strength for compassion, memory, recovery, and continued life,” said Yulia Kulysh, the writer and director of the short film, as quoted by Dyvoglyad.

The film's visual style is distinguished by its unique “wool animation,” with a soft and warm texture to mitigate the impact of the traumatic subject matter.

The film utilized various AI tools, including Midjourney and ChatGPT for image generation, Kling 1.6, Hailou, and Veo 3 for animation, and HeyGen and Kling for voice acting.

Earlier, Mstyslav Chernov's documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka and Anastasia Falileyeva's animated short I Died in Irpin were selected for consideration in the 2026 Academy Awards shortlist.

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