At the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Higgsfield AI premiered 'Hell Grind,' a 95-minute film created almost entirely using artificial intelligence.The project reportedly cost $500,000, with $400,000 spent solely on AI compute resources.

Despite the automation, the production still required significant traditional filmmaking expertise, including knowledge of camera composition, lighting, and scene continuity.

The team used existing AI tools, like Google's Veo 3, while Higgsfield provided a platform to generate highly detailed prompts—often over 3,000 words each—to ensure visual consistency.For example, the first 25 minutes required over 16,000 generated clips to produce 253 usable shots.

This method highlights the current limitations of AI filmmaking: while AI can generate visuals quickly, extensive iteration and expert guidance are essential to produce a coherent film.Higgsfield CEO Alex Mashrabov noted that using cloud providers like Nebius and CoreWeave helped manage costs.

The film aims to demonstrate how AI can be integrated into creative workflows, offering opportunities for independent creators while still requiring substantial human oversight to achieve production-quality results.