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“It's always a great honor for the Département des Alpes-Maritimes to welcome the talents of today and tomorrow, daring creators, lovers of images and storytelling, and with our SMART Deal policy to support festivals like WAiFF, geared towards innovation and new forms of storytelling. For the first edition of the festival, we celebrated not only creativity, but also the ability of culture to adapt, to reinvent itself, to dialogue with contemporary technological issues. Artificial intelligence, digital media and new formats do not extinguish cinema: they broaden and enrich it. I congratulate all the winners of this wonderful evening, who have demonstrated that innovation and emotion can go hand-in-hand. Thank you to all the participants, jury members, award winners and, of course, the WAiFF team, for their tremendous commitment. We have seen that the future of cinema is in good hands. And in the Alpes-Maritimes, it will continue to grow and invent. I look forward to seeing you at the second edition in 2026, for even more creativity and daring!
Charles Ange Ginésy, President of the Département des Alpes-Maritimes
“We wanted to put talent back at the heart of the debate, because innovation is worth nothing without the people behind it. AI marks a turning point for cinema, but it remains a tool: it's up to us to make good use of it. Faced with the promises and limits of AI, our jury took a critical and constructive look at the films.The films explore new avenues, but remind us that without talent, technology is not enough, hence the urgent need to rethink our models, our rights, and above all, to train the creators of tomorrow, who must also be women.”
Marco Landi, Président of the Institut EuropIA, former CEO of Apple Monde
“I'm delighted with the results of this first edition of WAiFF. From the outset, our ambition was clear: to put talent back at the center. For however powerful an innovation may be, it is worth nothing without the people who bring it to life. This festival was a decisive step towards a better understanding and perhaps even a demarcation of new technologies in the field of cinema. The industry was present, and the debates were rich. While opinions remain divided on the arrival of AI in cinema, one thing is clear: there will be a before and an after for AI. And even if this technology impresses with its prowess, it also shows its limits. It is, after all, only a tool. It's up to us to decide how to use it.“
Sarah Lelouch, producer, director and co-organizer of the festival
“What happened during these two days was exceptional. The debates we led with the Genario team showed just how much the industry is moving, sometimes with concern, but above all with lucidity, ambition and a desire to build. Whether we're talking about writing, new professions, financing or the law, a real dialogue has opened up. And that's essential. Already used by over 10,000 creators, the Genario scriptwriting tool took another step forward at WAiFF with the announcement of the launch of Genario Studio: a hub dedicated to AI-assisted video creation, designed to support producers, directors and scriptwriters in the design of scenes, inserts, pitch visualizations and hybrid sequences. Genario Studio is already working with several major producers and broadcasters, in France and abroad.”
David Defendi, founder of Genario and co-organizer of the festival
This first edition brought together over 1,000 spectators at the Pathé Gare du Sud for the screenings and ceremony, 25 speakers and nearly 200 professionals at the Palais Sarde for the day of round tables, in a spirit of exchange, openness and creativity.
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