Hell Grind (Higgsfield Original Series)
project history · status: completed · last event: milestone (2026-08-10) · owner: channel · last mentioned: 2026-10-20
Parts: Adil: leave the Hell Grind screenwriting Claude skill in the description (2026) · Adil: show the first generation day of the Hell Grind feature, a Claude shot list and the credit spend in the next episode (2026) · Adil says the first draft of the full Hell Grind film will be finished by episode 3 (2026) · Adil: leave the Hell Grind prompt adherence skill in the description (2026)
Told alongside: Zephyr: Cuties on Duty (Higgsfield Original Series) · Mork (Higgsfield Original Series)
About: Hell Grind
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-16 | milestone | Higgsfield releases Episode 1 of Hell Grind, a 22-minute pilot of the Higgsfield Original Series that it says was made from start to finish with Seedance 2.0. | Hell Grind - Episode 1 · Higgsfield Original Series (2026) video description |
| 2026-04-24 | looked back | Instead of a preset avatar, Adil uploads his own image to Marketing Studio, Lulu from Hell Grind (which he calls Higgsfield's most successful original series), names her and creates the avatar. · also in: Build a Brand's Visuals with AI: Marketing Studio Try-Ons | I Created a $1,000,000 Brand Using AI 00:08:37 |
| 2026-04-30 | milestone | Adil says the team will present a fully AI-generated 80-minute feature film, the continuation of Hell Grind, at Cannes in less than a month, with 10 million credits, 15 people and 14 days. · also in: How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) | World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 00:00:00 |
| 2026-05-09 | setback | On day two Adil spent nearly 100,000 credits on a two-and-a-half-minute scene, then a script change to a childhood flashback with new location and dialogue scrapped all of it. | How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) 00:57:57 |
| 2026-05-16 | milestone | Adil says the two-week sprint is over and the Hell Grind feature is locked. | How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) 00:27:20 |
| 2026-05-19 | milestone | Higgsfield releases the official trailer of Hell Grind, which it calls the world's first 90-minute sci-fi heist feature film made entirely with Higgsfield AI. | Hell Grind · Official Trailer · Higgsfield Original Series video description |
| 2026-05-19 | outcome | Higgsfield says the Hell Grind feature film is now screening at the Cannes Film Festival. | Hell Grind · Official Trailer · Higgsfield Original Series video description |
| 2026-06-10 | looked back | Higgsfield says 15 filmmakers made Hell Grind, a 95-minute action-fantasy feature film, in 14 days entirely in Higgsfield AI, and premiered it at Cannes. | Hell Grind Premiered in Cannes 🎬 video description |
| 2026-06-10 | milestone | On a boat in Cannes, Adil's team premieres the Hell Grind trailer and behind-the-scenes to 130 registered industry guests, filmmakers and critics, to build interest before the full premiere on the 21st. · also in: World's First Ever AI Feature Film in Cannes!, We Premiered a Full AI Film in Cannes 🎬, 👆 Watch the full Cannes vlog above | The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog 00:05:13 |
| 2026-06-10 (happened 2026-05) | outcome | Introducing himself as Higgsfield's face and content lead, Adil opens the Hell Grind premiere in Cannes: the company's first film, fully AI. | The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog 00:23:07 |
| 2026-07-29 | looked back | Higgsfield's blog of 29 July 2026 recalls that Hell Grind was showcased in the programme around the Cannes Film Festival. | How to Make a Short Film With AI: The Full Pipeline From Script to Final Cut |
| 2026-08-04 | milestone | Higgsfield releases the full 95-minute Hell Grind on YouTube and open-sources every prompt, asset and reference behind it. | Hell Grind · World's First Ever AI Feature Film · Higgsfield Originals (2026) video description |
| 2026-08-05 | milestone | Because everyone kept asking how Hell Grind was made, Higgsfield open-sourced the whole project: every prompt, every asset and every iteration, ready to recreate it. | Hell Grind: Rebuilding Our Biggest Fight Scene from Scratch 00:00:00 |
| 2026-08-10 | milestone | Ahead of the Higgsfield Global Film Festival, Higgsfield's blog says Hell Grind is fully public as a reference project: every prompt, asset and generation behind every scene. | Higgsfield Global Film Festival: How to Enter, Rules, and the $1,000,000 Prize Pool |
| 2026-10-20 (happened 2026-08) | looked back | Higgsfield's blog says Hell Grind was released as an open project with every prompt and asset in August 2026, and Zephyr and Mork were opened the same way. | 5 Best AI Video Generators for Long Videos |
What is said about it
69 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2026-04-16 · Hell Grind - Episode 1 · Higgsfield Original Series (2026) — Higgsfield calls Hell Grind the world's first 22-minute AI-generated series. — video description
- 2026-04-16 · Hell Grind - Episode 1 · Higgsfield Original Series (2026) — Higgsfield: Hell Grind Episode 1 is released in 1080p. — video description
- 2026-04-16 · Hell Grind - Episode 1 · Higgsfield Original Series (2026) — Higgsfield claims the recurring faces and emotions of Hell Grind Episode 1, made with Seedance 2.0, stay perfectly stable across every shot. — video description
- 2026-04-16 · Hell Grind - Episode 1 · Higgsfield Original Series (2026) — Higgsfield says every frame, style and cinematic transition of Hell Grind Episode 1 was generated on Higgsfield. — video description
- 2026-04-16 · Hell Grind - Episode 1 · Higgsfield Original Series (2026) — announcement: Higgsfield: Asked about the continuation of the Hell Grind story, the channel replies that more is coming soon. — creator comment
- 2026-04-18 · The Museum Heist Went Wrong! (1) — Higgsfield calls Hell Grind, a Higgsfield Original series, the world's first 22-minute AI-generated series. — video description · also in: The Museum Heist Went Wrong! (2)
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says the Hell Grind feature film is meant to prove that AI can produce cinema: a viewer watches 80 minutes and forgets it is AI, and the film holds together as a story. — 00:00:21
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says 15 people, him included, work on the Hell Grind feature: the same people who made the Higgsfield Original Series Arena Zero, Hell Grind and Zephyr. — 00:01:02
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says the Hell Grind feature team is 14 professional directors, DOPs and editors, plus himself. — 00:01:38
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says the 22-minute Hell Grind Episode 1 kept 253 videos out of 16,181 Seedance 2.0 generations and 107 images out of 10,701, and spent 1,152,095 credits, about $69,000. — 00:02:24
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says the generations of Hell Grind Episode 1 were not waste but craft: each kept generation taught the prompts for the next, and masterpieces are the thousands of prompts nobody sees. — 00:02:24
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says Hell Grind Episode 1 took almost 27,000 generations for 22 minutes, and the team now has to make 60 more minutes in 14 days with 10 million credits. — 00:02:49
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says that in traditional production the first episode of Hell Grind would have cost millions of dollars. — 00:02:49
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Chuck Russell says Hell Grind pleasantly surprised him: he was entertained and, though he meant to watch an AI production critically, got into the characters and the story. — 00:03:38
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Chuck Russell tells the Hell Grind filmmakers they made him care about their characters, something he almost never sees in AI. — 00:04:06
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Chuck Russell says film will always be about the human heart, and the authenticity of small productions like Hell Grind is one of their biggest advantages. — 00:05:19
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says the whole script of the Hell Grind feature film was finalised in only three days. — 00:05:40
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — recommendation: Adil says each asset on the Hell Grind canvas (locations, characters, props) carries a detailed description, not just a name, to give the model as much context as possible. — 00:07:13
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — recommendation: Adil says the Hell Grind locations are made from many different angles to keep everything consistent across shots. — 00:09:53
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says the Hell Grind film is split into chunks, each given to a team with its own director; every team must generate 2.5 minutes of usable footage a day so that all 80 minutes exist after week one and week two goes to refining. — 00:10:14
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says each Hell Grind team submits its edited 2.5 minutes of footage to the lead editor at the end of every day. — 00:10:14
- 2026-04-30 · World's First Ever 80 Minute AI Film · Road to Cannes Ep. 1 — Adil says that at the start of day 1 of 14 the Hell Grind script is done, the canvas built, the shot list split and the teams assigned. — 00:10:43
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Higgsfield: Adil's day-4 session on the 80-minute AI feature for Cannes cost $6,139 in one sitting: 800 generations, of which 8 shots made the cut. — video description
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil generates scenes 21 and 23 while a co-worker makes scene 22; his shots must get the director's approval or they do not make the film. — 00:01:10
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — recommendation: Adil: The lighting line of the Hell Grind style prefix: "natural light only, key light coming from sky and windows only". — 00:03:50
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: The final layout of the old-apartment location took Adil 44 iterations. — 00:29:06
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Patrick Kalyn calls Hell Grind incredible: at times he forgot it was AI-generated, which the animation world calls "the illusion of life", and he felt the emotion. — 00:32:01
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Patrick Kalyn estimates that Hell Grind, made with a traditional shoot and visual-effects pipeline where almost every other shot is a VFX shot, would cost about 15 to 20 million US dollars. (hedged) — 00:32:42
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — recommendation: Adil: The Hell Grind shots are generated at 21:9 instead of 16:9 because the film will be shown on big screens. — 00:48:06
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: The Hell Grind plan: the first week generates the full 80 minutes, the second week refines key moments. — 00:54:26
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: The film is made in 14 days because someone on the team had the idea a week earlier to make a feature and take it to Cannes, which is why 15 people work on it. — 01:16:08
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: The 15 Hell Grind team members who generate are professional DOPs and directors; besides them the team has screenwriters, sound designers and editors. — 01:31:03
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: Shot 21C, about ten seconds of footage, took Adil 72 generations. — 01:53:24
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: In four days the Hell Grind team spent 4,441,352 credits and generated 48,336 images and videos, about $260,000. — 03:04:55
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil is beginning to think the 10 million credits may not be enough for the Hell Grind feature. (hedged) — 03:05:20
- 2026-05-09 · How to Make AI Films That Don't Look AI (Full Tutorial) — Adil: During the shoot Adil generated nearly 800 assets, and only 8 made the final cut. — 03:05:20
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — announcement: Higgsfield shares the Hell Grind project canvas publicly. — video description
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Adil: On day 8 of 14 the Hell Grind team had the full draft of the feature, as planned, but Adil judged it not good enough: 110 minutes of footage had to be cut to 90. — 00:00:22
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Adil: Forty scenes of the Hell Grind draft still needed fixing; Adil follows three of them through to day 11. — 00:01:11
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Adil: In the first failed Hell Grind scene, Jax and Rain look too plasticky with too much light on their faces, their reactions feel off and the portal looks cheap. — 00:01:38
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Adil: During three days of fixing scenes, up to day 11, the Hell Grind team almost ran out of credits but did not. — 00:04:12
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — recommendation: Adil calls a system prompt for prompt adherence the most important tip; the 15-person Hell Grind team spent a full week polishing this one skill. — 00:10:15
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — recommendation: Adil: The Hell Grind prompt adherence skill sets one main idea, one main action and one main camera strategy per shot. — 00:10:42
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Joma Jurabaev: Concept artist Joma Jurabaev says Hell Grind Episode 1 hooked him with its story, characters and conflict and did not feel like an AI movie, though some places could be improved. — 00:13:06
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Joma Jurabaev says that more than the tools, the talent, vision and storytelling of the people behind Hell Grind show; beautiful pictures without a story are hard to watch. — 00:13:36
- 2026-05-16 · How to Make Ultra Realistic AI Videos (28 Best Tips) — Adil: Over 14 days the Hell Grind feature took 108,859 generations (about 7,700 a day, 320 an hour) and 9,540,147 credits, just under the budget, about $400,000 in generation costs. — 00:27:20
- 2026-05-19 · Hell Grind · Official Trailer · Higgsfield Original Series — Higgsfield says Hell Grind was co-written with two-time Cannes Official Programme filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov and created end to end with Higgsfield AI, which it calls a first in feature film history. — video description
- 2026-05-19 · Hell Grind · Official Trailer · Higgsfield Original Series — Higgsfield says the Hell Grind team of 15 directors, DPs and editors generated over 16,000 video clips for the 253 final shots of the first episode, all for under $500K in total, against $50M+ for a comparable traditional production. — video description
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Higgsfield says 15 filmmakers built Hell Grind, a 95-minute action-fantasy feature film, in 14 days entirely with Higgsfield, and premiered it in Cannes. — video description
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — a guest: A Higgsfield speaker says Higgsfield partnered with Hell Grind's director and his team in the Higgsfield Original Series programme, which pushes the boundaries of end-to-end AI content creation. — 00:07:27
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — a guest: A Higgsfield speaker says Hell Grind took a team of 15 people two weeks, with a budget slightly under half a million dollars. — 00:07:27
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Adil says more people came to the Hell Grind boat event than the 130 who signed up, with a queue and many DOPs, directors, filmmakers and AI filmmakers. (hedged) — 00:08:08
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Adil says Hell Grind, made in 14 days, is meant to showcase both the features of Higgsfield's tool and the team of directors who made the film. — 00:23:40
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — announcement: Adil says Hell Grind is only one of many AI films and Higgsfield has a lot more in store. — 00:24:33
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Adil says everyone he talked to after the Hell Grind screening gave great feedback, impressed by its quality and by its having taken only 14 days. — 00:25:12
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — a guest: An audience member says many viewers of Hell Grind thought its images were all real, and calls the film excellent. — 00:25:38
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Phedon Papamichael: Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael says he came to Hell Grind without the highest expectations and was very impressed: there is room for improvement, but it is minor, and AI is far along in closing the gap to Hollywood standards. — 00:27:18
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Steve, managing director of the worldwide sales agent Cinema Vault, in its 40th year at Cannes, hopes to get involved with Hell Grind, which he calls a blockbuster he can help bring to audiences worldwide. (hedged) — 00:27:44
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — a guest: A guest calls Hell Grind amazing and its five directors, who made it with AI, the new Lumière of the 21st century. (overstated) — 00:28:34
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Steve says there are a few things he would change in Hell Grind, which he has already recommended, but calls it an unbelievable film and making it in two weeks mind-blowing. — 00:29:17
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Steve says Hell Grind could hold up in a theatrical release in the US and can already compete. — 00:30:08
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — Steve says that six months from now someone could make a film like Hell Grind and close the gap even more. (hedged) — 00:30:08
- 2026-06-10 · The $500,000 AI Film Screening in Cannes! · Full Vlog — a guest: A guest says he was astonished by Hell Grind's screening, calls it a historic moment and the first step towards AI producing films for festivals. — 00:30:36
- 2026-08-04 · Hell Grind · World's First Ever AI Feature Film · Higgsfield Originals (2026) — Higgsfield says Hell Grind is a 95-minute AI-generated feature film made for $500,000. — video description
- 2026-08-04 · Hell Grind · World's First Ever AI Feature Film · Higgsfield Originals (2026) — Higgsfield: Hell Grind screened at the Cannes market and was covered by The Wall Street Journal, Variety and BBC News. — video description
- 2026-08-05 · Hell Grind: Rebuilding Our Biggest Fight Scene from Scratch — Adil says Hell Grind, which he calls the first AI feature film, was made by the team in 14 days and premiered in Cannes. — 00:00:00
- 2026-08-05 · Hell Grind: Rebuilding Our Biggest Fight Scene from Scratch — Adil: After days of rewriting the same shots, the Hell Grind team packed its workflow into one Claude skill that structures prompts in four parts: asset tags as simple anchors, spatial coordinates in meters, time-coded movements in seconds and strict rules against hallucination. — 00:03:09 · also in: Direct AI fight scenes through controlled iteration: Blueprint the fight before motion
- 2026-08-05 · Hell Grind: Rebuilding Our Biggest Fight Scene from Scratch — Adil: The full fight came out like a video game cutscene, the team's biggest struggle in every action scene of Hell Grind: writing "not a game, no CGI" a dozen times failed, because models ignore the word "not" and just see "game". — 00:16:17 · also in: Direct AI fight scenes through controlled iteration: Replace game-like coverage with cinematic direction
- 2026-10-20 · 5 Best AI Video Generators for Long Videos — Higgsfield's blog says Hell Grind, a 95-minute feature of Higgsfield Originals made entirely on Higgsfield, was shown at the Cannes Film Market in May 2026.