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🐻 AI Animated Short by Igor Alferov Wins Frame Forward Grand Prix
Kazakh director Igor Alferov’s short film “Thanksgiving Day” has become the big winner at the inaugural Frame Forward AI Animated Film Festival.
The intergalactic story will now be shown in cinemas across the United States, having secured a two‑week national theatrical run.
The film is a satirical adventure about a bear and his platypus sidekick, who roam space in a spaceship that looks like a trash dumpster. Along the way, they run into corrupt space cops, hygiene inspectors, and a very strange food delivery service.
Alferov created the short using cutting‑edge AI tools, including Gemini 3.1 and Nano Banana Pro. The jury — which included industry veterans from Google and Modern Uprising Studios — described the work as “a master class in original storytelling,” where neural networks helped unlock the director’s bold imagination.
The win was determined by a combination of expert evaluation and audience voting. In the final round, Thanksgiving Day beat out two strong contenders: the philosophical saga The Pillar and the parable So Close Yet So Far.
