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Who Won $1,000,000? Higgsfield Global Film Festival Winners

2026-11-01 · other · Adil, Higgsfield, Zack Murray, Yevhen Kunpan, Bautista Vidal Iraola, Ed Catmull, a guest · recording, 23:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productions (case studies) · mode: Event · tags: fiction, guest or collaboration

Adil hosts the winners ceremony of the $1,000,000 Higgsfield Global Film Festival: Listen to Meh by Purga Studio wins first place ($500,000), Fukushima second, The Field Agent third, The Tortoise and the Hare the Audience Choice, with ten honorable mentions; the description announces Higgsfield Talent, a programme of more than $1,000,000 to back more creators.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The winning filmmakers get the news

  • ★★ Adil recalls the Higgsfield Global Film Festival brief: in August Higgsfield asked for a short film at least three minutes long, made entirely on Higgsfield. — 00:00:00 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival

00:00:54 — Welcome: the festival brief, shortlist, vote, jury criteria and rule checks

00:01:55 — The jury

00:02:26 — Honorable mentions: ten films, $10,000 each

00:07:24 — Audience Choice: The Tortoise and the Hare, the winner's reaction and the jury's comments

  • ★★ Adil says the jury did not pick the Audience Choice award: every Higgsfield subscriber could vote on the shortlist until 15 October, and the film with the most votes wins $100,000. — 00:07:29 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★★ The festival's Audience Choice award goes to The Tortoise and the Hare by Dae Hyeong Kang of South Korea, in which a rabbit expedition breaks into a forbidden tomb looking for the Golden Turtles (as heard). — 00:07:52 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★ a guest: A festival juror calls The Tortoise and the Hare an extraordinarily detailed and technically ambitious production, made with imagination and care for its world and characters, whose visual accomplishment is undeniable. — 00:09:16
  • ★★ a guest: A second festival juror praises the imagery, characters and world building of The Tortoise and the Hare and says that, as a taste of a potential feature film, it is a movie he would watch. — 00:09:51
  • ★★ a guest: A third festival juror calls The Tortoise and the Hare excellent visual design and technique and a solid demonstration of what is possible with the Higgsfield tools available today. — 00:09:51
  • ★★★ Third place in the festival and $100,000 go to The Field Agent by Zack Murray, about the drive-in's biggest movie fan, who finally gets a mission of his own. — 00:11:00 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival

00:11:02 — Third place: The Field Agent by Zack Murray

  • ★★ Zack Murray says he watched all 126 shortlisted films of the Higgsfield Global Film Festival and some were really incredible. — 00:11:43 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★ Zack Murray says he is now in production on an animated feature film. — 00:11:43
  • ★★ a guest: A festival juror calls The Field Agent a wonderfully entertaining film that captures the melancholy charm and visual magic of vintage cinema. — 00:12:12
  • ★★ a guest: A second festival juror says the central character of The Field Agent evokes sympathy, empathy and surprising emotion, and its blend of a 1960s spy movie with the realism of the field is compelling. — 00:13:01
  • ★★ a guest: A third festival juror praises The Field Agent for setting a fictitious fantasy character against a classic James Bond cinematic look. — 00:13:30

00:14:20 — Second place: Fukushima

  • ★★★ Second place in the festival and $200,000 go to Fukushima, by a team from Cyprus, set at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the 2011 disaster, where a veteran engineer believes the plant can hold. — 00:14:20 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★ Yevhen Kunpan says the Fukushima team wants to try sci-fi and fantasy styles next. — 00:15:41
  • ★★ a guest: A festival juror calls Fukushima a terrific premise with wonderfully inventive camera work that left him wanting more, and hopes the prize leads to a feature-length version. — 00:16:15
  • ★★ a guest: A second festival juror praises Fukushima's use of the one-shot technique and its immersive soundtrack. — 00:16:15
  • ★★ a guest: A third festival juror says Fukushima shows what current AI tools can do to tell a story cinematically, with great character expressions and dramatic storytelling despite its short length. — 00:17:02
  • ★★★ First place in the festival and $500,000 go to Listen to Meh by Purga Studio from Argentina, in which a gaucho's quiet routine keeps being interrupted by a sheep that won't get off his roof. — 00:17:55 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival

00:17:57 — First place: Listen to Meh by Purga Studio

  • ★★ a guest: A Purga Studio member says Listen to Meh is the first chapter of a series of short films the studio is developing, and it will continue with others. — 00:19:56
  • ★★ a guest: A festival juror calls Listen to Meh an exceptional film joining a simple, emotionally resonant story with a distinctive visual style, and was most impressed by the consistency of the filmmakers' vision. — 00:19:56
  • ★★ a guest: A second festival juror praises Listen to Meh for combining a non-realistic character with a live-action setting, its pacing and its end shot. — 00:20:42
  • ★★ a guest: A third festival juror says Listen to Meh shows great control of colour palette and mood and strong visual storytelling, an existential story told as a cartoon with good use of symbolism. — 00:21:11

00:21:42 — A message from Ed Catmull to the makers of Listen to Meh

  • ★★★ Ed Catmull says the whole story of Listen to Meh held together, so viewers paid no attention to the underlying technology and just watched the story. — 00:21:53
  • ★★ Ed Catmull says a great short film puts mystery, excitement, humour, frustration and logic together to make a whole. — 00:22:21

00:22:43 — Thanks, open festival projects and something bigger coming

  • ★★ Adil says every Higgsfield Global Film Festival project is open on Higgsfield with its prompts and generations. — 00:22:44 · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★ Adil says Higgsfield has something much bigger coming very soon. — 00:22:44

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Higgsfield: The Higgsfield Global Film Festival jury was Ed Catmull, Phedon Papamichael, Paul W.S. Anderson and Alex Proyas. — video description · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★ Higgsfield: Ten festival films got an honorable mention and $10,000 each (listed alphabetically): BALLAST, THE COAT, The Elevator, FIX, GIRLS / DEMONS, HUNGER, Lullaby, Morek, ROAR and Soulless. — video description · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★ Higgsfield says it will email the recipients of the festival's honorable mentions shortly with the next steps. — video description · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★★ Higgsfield says its Global Film Festival drew 60,000 entries and 5,000 film submissions from 176 countries and awarded $1,000,000 in cash prizes to 14 winners. — video description · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★ Higgsfield: All Higgsfield Global Film Festival prizes are subject to verification under the Official Rules. — video description · Higgsfield Global Film Festival
  • ★★★ Higgsfield announces Higgsfield Talent, a community programme investing more than $1,000,000 on top of the festival prizes to back more creators. — video description · Higgsfield AI
  • ★★ Higgsfield Talent members can connect directly with Higgsfield's creative team and other filmmakers, explore collaborations and get updates on upcoming projects, products and programmes. — video description
  • ★★ Higgsfield is planning in-person Higgsfield Talent sessions and bootcamps in LA, NY, London, Lisbon, Bali, Tokyo and Seoul, where creators work alongside its team. — video description
  • ★★ Higgsfield says it will reach out personally by email to the creators selected for Higgsfield Talent, and the invitation comes with a direct cash grant. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Fukushima · Higgsfield Global Film Festival · Listen to Meh · The Field Agent · The Tortoise and the Hare

Also: Pixar

Taking part: Bautista Vidal Iraola · Ed Catmull · Yevhen Kunpan · Zack Murray

Only in the description or credits: Alex Proyas · Dae Hyeong Kang · Higgsfield Talent · Ivan Basov · Ivan Kovalev · Joaquin Iraola · Manuel Montes de Oca · Martin Montes de Oca · Nikolay Lesovsky · Paul W.S. Anderson · Phedon Papamichael · PURGA

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