AI Creative Media Hackathon 2025 – Calling All Storytellers, Creators & Innovators!
Yoobee College of Creative Innovation is proudly partnering with the Screen Music & Sound Guild of New Zealand to present the AI Creative Media Hackathon 2025: an exciting, free-to-enter competition inviting creatives at all levels to push the boundaries of storytelling and technology.
How to Enter
To take part, gather a team of up to five people and register via the link below. You’ll have 48 hours over the weekend of Saturday 28th to Sunday 29th June to create a short film using AI tools. Your team can be made up of students, graduates, or professionals. Submissions will be judged by a panel of industry experts, and finalists will be celebrated at the Big Screen Symposium Awards Ceremony on Friday 4th July. There are cash prizes of $3,000 for 1st place, $2,000 for 2nd place, and $1,000 for 3rd place!
Yoobee is proud to support this initiative as it strongly aligns with our values of Excellence, Partnership, Innovation and Care. We believe in empowering students with hands-on, real-world experiences that prepare them for the evolving creative industries. Events like this strengthen the bridge between education and industry, giving participants valuable exposure, insights, and opportunities to build lasting networks. Through this event, we aim to:
To explore the responsible use of AI tools in filmmaking, guided by experienced industry mentors, and to open up discussion around the pros, cons, and ethics of this rapidly evolving technology.
To deepen participants’ understanding of AI, helping creatives build the knowledge they need to work with emerging tools while keeping human creativity at the centre of storytelling
As part of our work to encourage conversation on this topic some of our Hackathon judges will be participating in the AI debate session at the Big Screen Symposium. All Hackathon participants will gain access to the debate as a way to further develop their thinking on AI tools after their experience of creating films with them.
This event is completely free to enter, and spaces are limited — so don’t wait. For more info, visit the SMSG page here.
Please submit your completed entry form by Wednesday 18th June at 5pm. Places are limited so entries may close earlier once maximum numbers are reached.
For any questions, please contact admin@smsg.org.nz.
--- Registration is closed, thank you to everyone who sent in their entries! ---
