Key points
- Entrants to ITFS 2027 must declare any use of generative AI in the production process, including systems used to generate or significantly alter images, animations, text, speech or music.
- Declared AI use does not automatically disqualify a film, but the festival may label or categorise films whose essential creative visual design was primarily created with generative AI.
- Intentionally false or misleading declarations can lead to exclusion; entry deadlines are 15 November 2026 for the short-film competitions and 15 January 2027 for features.
Summary
The regulations for the 34th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (27 April to 2 May 2027), posted in August 2026 with entries opening on 1 September, contain the festival's first rule on generative AI, in section 1.1.1 of the terms of participation. Every submitter must "declare any use of generative AI technologies in the production process of their film", which "includes AI systems used to generate or significantly alter images, animations, text, speech or music", stating "the nature and extent of AI use" truthfully in the submission form. The declaration is for transparency with the festival and its pre-selection jury "and does not automatically result in disqualification", but "the festival has the right to label or categorise films whose essential creative visual design was primarily created using generative AI", and it "reserves the right to exclude submissions from the competition if intentionally false or misleading information is provided". Set beside Ottawa's 2026 rule, which makes fully AI-generated work ineligible, Stuttgart's is the disclose-and-label model: the two together give a program a real comparison to teach from.
Implications for animation education
For a program that sends student films to festivals, the Stuttgart form now asks a question the student must be able to answer: what generative AI was used, for what, and to what extent, across images, animation, text, speech and music. That is a documentation habit worth building into production units before the film is finished, not at the submission desk, and the regulation's own categories are a usable template for a process log. Together with Ottawa's disqualification rule the entry gives a seminar two live governance models to compare (disqualify, or disclose and label), and Sundance's mandatory-disclosure FAQ for 2027 is a third data point. The rule is edition-specific and its 2027 document still carries some dates copied from the 2026 edition, so quote the current year's regulations rather than this entry when briefing students.
Compliance deadlines
- 2026-11-15 Entry deadline, short-film competitions (International, Student, Tricks for Kids, Trickstar Nature); AI declaration in the submission form
- 2027-01-15 Entry deadline, AniMovie feature-film competition
Related items
- Ottawa International Animation Festival 2026: eligibility rule on AI-assisted and AI-generated work
- Runway and the AI Film Festival
- Screen Australia AI Transparency Statement (stakeholder provisions)
Source
Source: Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart (Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH) ↗ (Policy Text)
Primary document: itfs.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/REGLEMENT-OF-ITFS-2027_EN.pdf ↗
Cite this item
Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart (Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH) (2026). ‘Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) 2027 regulations: generative-AI disclosure and labelling rule’, Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart (Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH). Available at: https://itfs.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/REGLEMENT-OF-ITFS-2027_EN.pdf
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