Editions · 2026
The first edition
1–4 October 2026 at Cinema Lux, Massagno (Lugano). Four days of cinema and artificial intelligence: this is how the first Merge Film Festival went.
In numbers
The first edition in numbers
Switzerland’s first film festival dedicated to artificial intelligence opened with three competitions, eight awards and a room full of students.
- ≈ 370films submitted from around the world
- 36films in competition, across three sections
- 17countries and territories on screen
- 8awards, plus three honourable mentions
- 867audience votes, cast by 107 viewers
- 180accreditations for guests, industry, press and staff
- ≈ 1500total attendance across the whole festival
- 273seats, every one taken for WALL·E with the schools
Palmarès
The winners
Five juries and the audience decided six awards. Two more, the Swiss Press Award and the Swiss Innovator Award, were conferred with linkfloyd and Swiss AI Weeks.
Hybrid Award
Railbound
Jonathan Perry
Watch the film YouTubeHonourable mention Bronze bust, digital guard Isabel Pastor, Benjamin Rossmann Watch the trailer Vimeo
Critics’ Award by Filmexplorer
Little Mes
Fabian Jimenez, Lucas Levitan
Watch the film YouTubeHonourable mention Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis Sabine von Bassewitz Watch the trailer YouTube
Youth Jury Award
A Message for the Butterfly
Zuxin Hou, Mark Wachholz
Watch the film YouTubeHonourable mention You Will Always Be Welcome Here Samuele Portera Watch the trailer YouTube
Audience Award
Home
Emil Gasanov
Watch the film YouTube8.7 out of 10, the highest average of the festival.
Swiss Press Award by linkfloyd
Let’s Play Ball
Dayu
Watch the film BilibiliPlays on a computer only: Bilibili does not open it on phones.
Swiss Innovator Award by Swiss AI Weeks
Memory of Princess Mumbi
Damien Hauser
Watch the trailer YouTubeThe opening film, out of competition · Kenya, Switzerland, 2025.
Audience Award
The audience vote
The audience rated every film from 1 to 10 on their phones, from the start of each competition screening until three hours after it ended: one vote per film per device.
- 867votes cast
- 107viewers who voted
- 36films rated, all of them
The audience’s top five
- 1 Home 8.7
- 2 Le drip 8.5
- 3 A Face Only A Mother Could Love 8.0
- 4 Let’s Play Ball 7.6
- 5 Rodeo of the Mouse 7.4
Average of all the votes each film received, out of 10.
Official selection 2026
Full AI
Twenty films made entirely with artificial intelligence.
Official selection 2026
Hybrid
Eight films where traditional filmmaking meets artificial intelligence.
Official selection 2026
Experimental
Eight works where video art meets artificial intelligence.
Juries
Who decided
Ten jurors across four juries, a Youth Jury of students and the audience in the room.
Full AI
- Javishth Chabria
- Hardeep Gambhir
Hybrid
- Marco Longo
- Francesca Monti
Experimental
- Alessandro Bavari
- Marco Poloni
- Keith Zhang
Critics’ Jury
Powered by Filmexplorer
- Giuseppe Di Salvatore
- Evelyn Kreutzer
- Olivier Legras
Youth Jury
Students and young film lovers, who followed the whole festival and gave an award of their own.
- Elisa Bisig
- Zara Boyraz
- Patric Dornbierer
- Linda Jam
- Mattia Malaspina
- Letizia Marrone
- Mirko Rovatti
- Ilaria Weber
Audience Jury
Everyone in the room, film by film, from their own phone.