Generative AI Film Festival at Adobe MAX 2025: A Creative Exploration

At Adobe MAX 2025, the inaugural Generative AI Film Festival showcased the works of six visionary directors, each presenting a unique short film. These films, ranging from animated series trailers to Afrofuturist sci-fi comedies, were premiered at MAX and on Adobe's blog.

The festival provided an in-depth look at the making of each film, featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes videos that detailed how the filmmakers utilized generative AI to realize their visions. The specific workflows involving Adobe Firefly and Adobe Creative Cloud were highlighted as pivotal in bringing these stories to life.

Director Nik Kleverov used Firefly Boards to establish the tone for the 'Beta Earth' series trailer, transforming hand-drawn character designs into their final forms with Firefly's assistance.

Director King Willonius leveraged generative AI to instantly conceptualize and construct the worlds for his film. Using Firefly's partner model Nano Banana, he generated visuals and employed Runway for style transfers.

Director Dave Clark's team intentionally blended classic filmmaking with AI workflows, using Firefly Boards to layout the story and plan shots, exploring various worlds and character designs.

Director Guillaume Hurbault treated Firefly Boards as an all-in-one creative studio, generating, refining, and organizing visuals and motion tests seamlessly, maintaining the aesthetic of Japanese ink painting.

Director MetaPuppet combined his traditional filmmaking background with new technology, experimenting with character and subway location visuals using Firefly Boards.

Director Ryan Patterson used Firefly Boards to recreate scenes from his past, generating all film images and videos, streamlining his workflow with various partner models.

The festival highlighted a common theme: generative AI tools enhance rather than replace the creative process. Adobe's integrated Firefly and Creative Cloud workflow enables a single platform for ideation, image/video generation, sound prototyping, and editorial finishing, keeping human creativity at the core.