A sci-fi feature film made entirely by artificial intelligence has screened at the Cannes Film Festival's market week, demonstrating a seismic shift in production economics.
The 95-minute film, "Hell Grind," was produced by Higgsfield AI-now valued at $1.3 billion-for under $500,000. A traditional studio would have spent roughly $50 million on a comparable project.
The project was completed in just 14 days by a 15-person team based primarily in Kazakhstan. Of the total budget, $400,000 went to AI compute costs-80% of the spend on processing power, not actors or sets.
The production generated over 61,000 AI outputs to select 960 final shots, a nearly 63-to-1 discard ratio. Higgsfield operates as an orchestration layer on top of third-party AI models.
The screening occurred during the Marché du Film, the business marketplace of Cannes, not the official festival competition.
Higgsfield AI reports an annual revenue run rate exceeding $400 million, suggesting the company is valued more like a software business than a speculative venture.