On May 21, at the Cannes film market Marché du Film, the 95-minute film “Hell Grind” — created entirely using artificial intelligence on the Higgsfield AI platform — had its world premiere. The film was directed by Aytore Zholdaskali, who co-wrote the screenplay with Adilkhan Yerzhanov, a two-time participant in the official Cannes Film Festival program. The screening was organized by Higgsfield to showcase the platform’s capabilities to international distributors and studios.
The film received wide international media coverage — features on “Hell Grind” were published in The Wall Street Journal, Variety, and BBC, confirming the project’s global impact in professional and media circles.
The story follows four inseparable street thieves — Roko, Lulu, Jax, and Reyne. During a botched robbery, Roko accidentally activates an ancient artifact that sends Lulu through a portal into the underworld. The heroes must journey through a Tibetan temple and feudal Japan in an attempt to reclaim what was lost, while Roko himself gradually begins to lose his humanity. The creators describe the film as “a fantasy about tragedy and an action story about surviving loss.” Higgsfield AI notes that this film demonstrates that AI can now do more than make short clips for TikTok, ads, or social media — it can create longer, narrative-driven stories, such as mini-films or full genre features (sci-fi, thriller, etc.).
The project was made by a team of 15 professional directors, cinematographers, and editors with experience in both traditional cinema and original Higgsfield projects — Arena Zero and Zephyr — including directors Adilet Abish, Severyan Chichua, Mikhail Kumarov, and Yergazy Begilikov. To create just the first 25-minute episode, 16,181 videos were generated, of which only 253 shots made it into the final cut — a selection ratio of 64 to 1. The total budget for the 95-minute film did not exceed $500,000, including approximately $400,000 in compute costs and 14 days of video generation.
Co-founder Yerzat Dulat notes: “Hell Grind is a signal to the entire industry and a demonstration of what technology is capable of at scale today. Producing a similar film the traditional way would cost around $50 million — we made it for under $500,000. Behind every frame of Hell Grind are directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, and engineers who believed in this idea before anyone else. We continue to build this team — and we’re looking for those who want to be part of the next major projects.”
Hollywood director Chuck Russell (The Mask, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) and co-founder of Neumorphic AI also watched the film and shared his reaction: “They made me feel for the characters — and that’s something I almost never see in AI projects.” On May 16, he participated in a public discussion alongside Alex Mashrabov as part of the industry preview of Hell Grind at Vieux Port. Russell and his company Neumorphic AI announced a partnership with Higgsfield, together launching two full-length AI projects — “Hyperia” and “b”.
For director Aytore Zholdaskali — whose film “Sicko” screened in the Bright Future program at the 2025 Rotterdam Film Festival and was selected for SXSW London 2026 — “Hell Grind” became not only a technological experiment but a symbol of change in the industry.
“It took me ten years to make my first feature film the traditional way. Many who started alongside me never got the chance to become directors. I shot weddings, music videos, and earned trust step by step before being given a budget for a series and films. Today, the film industry resembles the music business twenty years ago: releasing a film still requires major studios and multimillion-dollar investments. Higgsfield gave us the ability to create our own independent cinema. The new generation of directors won’t have to wait ten years to make their film.”
The premiere of “Hell Grind” coincided with active discussions about AI in cinema at the world’s leading film festival. Demi Moore, speaking at a Cannes press conference, called on the industry to find ways to collaborate with AI: “I think the reality is: resisting AI means fighting something we will lose. So finding ways to work with it is the more valuable path.”
The Higgsfield team is growing — the company has opened positions for those who want to build the future of cinema:
- Motion Designer
- Scriptwriter / Screenwriter
- Film & Commercial Director
- Cinematographer
- Backend Engineer
- Design Engineer
- Frontend Engineer
- Product Manager
- Product Designer
Apply at: jobs.ashbyhq.com/higgsfieldai
Higgsfield is a generative video and image platform for creators, brands, and production teams. The company develops its own models and integrates leading third-party solutions — including Sora by OpenAI, Veo and Nano Banana by Google, WAN by Alibaba, Kling by Kuaishou, MiniMax, and others — into a unified production workflow, allowing teams to select the best model for each task. The platform is used by over 20 million people who have created more than 50 million videos.
