AI Media Award 2025: Six Creative Visionaries Redefine the Future of Art and AI
Yoni Attlan, Yanina de Sapio, Mark Wachholz, Nishtha Shailajan, Jose Alvarez, and Dika Karan are shaping a new creative era through artificial intelligence. The six winners of the first international AI Media Award 2025 were honored on Friday during the Smile Swiss Influence Award in Dübendorf. The award-winning films are now available online at www.ai-media-award.com.
With their innovative short films, they set new standards, demonstrating how AI enables new forms of storytelling, aesthetics, and production beyond traditional tools and boundaries.
Over 300 submissions from around the world competed for this first-of-its-kind award dedicated to the artistic use of AI. The 15-member international jury selected six winners in the categories Animation, Advertising, Narration, Art, Fashion, and Music Video, and presented the special prize “Best Swiss Entry” to Yanina de Sapio.
The award serves as a platform for a new creative movement, in which artists use AI not as a replacement but as a partner — to visualize ideas, model emotions, and tell stories beyond conventional limits.
“The winning works show that we are witnessing the birth of a new language — one between human and machine,” says Andrea Riege, Co-Initiator and Founding Member of the AI Media Agency. “The AI Media Award aims to make this transformation visible.”
A Digital Window into the Future
The award-winning films are now available online at www.ai-media-award.com. With the award and the publication of the winning works, a digital window opens to a new era of creative expression — one where technological innovation and human imagination go hand in hand.
The Winners
Yoni Attlan (Austria) – At the Edge of the Night
Yanina de Sapio (Switzerland) – Ocean Mirror
Mark Wachholz (Germany) – The Cinema That Never Was
Nishtha Shailajan (India) – Peach
Jose Alvarez (United Kingdom) – The Fashion Icon Sending Shockwaves
Dika Karan (Indonesia) – Echoes of Me
The Jury
Entries were evaluated independently and anonymously by an international jury of 15 experts from the fields of creativity, media, technology, and education. Each juror assessed the works based on creativity, originality, technical execution, and emotional impact, ensuring a fair and unbiased selection process.
The jury included Julia Anklam, Chris Beyeler, Roland Brack, Pasquale de Sapio, Fabian Frauenfelder, Thomas Frei, Cyrill Hauser, Tobias M. Huber, Nolan Michaels, Fabian Plüss, Andrea Riege, Björn Schaeffner, Barnaby Skinner, Cihan Ünür, and Caleb Ward.
The AI Media Award was organized as part of the Smile Swiss Influence Award, in collaboration with the AI Media Agency and supported by the SAE Institute as main sponsor.
