A competition for AI storytellers

Submit a Body of Work that tells a story from start to finish. Be reviewed by expert judges, and compete for a $1,000 grant and a feature in Prompt Magazine.

Edition 1 is now closed. Browse the winning entries below.

The Aviator's Pulse

A boy stands in a coffee garden at sunset. Watching the light break through branches. Something shifts behind his eyes—not a thought yet, just a feeling. A weight. A question.

Years dissolve.

He's in Paris now, older. The city pulses around him, indifferent. In cramped workshops, his hands move like a conductor's—touching brass, sketching air. He watches an engine transform into something musical. Sound becomes shape becomes flight. A wristwatch sits on a workbench. History is being written in leather and steel.

He stands in a salon full of people who don't believe him. One arm raised. Mouth moving. We hear nothing but we know: he's fighting against the weight of certainty.

Then—a morning that changes everything. A wooden frame lifts. Sky rushes. For one minute that feels like forever, gravity forgets to hold.

The world explodes with him inside it.

Parades. Praise. Hands reaching. The impossible made routine. He watches from the edge, touching his chest, breathing into something that feels like loss even as crowds worship at his feet.

Years collapse into each other—workshops become trenches. Machines built for wonder rain fire. He lies awake at night listening to echoes of his own invention. The weight becomes unbearable. His hands shake. He's haunted by what he's free of.

Decades pass.

A small apartment in São Paulo. Afternoon light through a window. An old man stands alone, looking out at a skyline he no longer recognizes. Somewhere out there, cities are building themselves toward clouds. Because of him. Without him.

Then—small hands. A child. A toy airplane on a workbench. The old man's weathered hand on the child's shoulder. Not speaking. Just witnessing. Passing something forward that he can't explain but somehow must.

The machines still fly. In photographs, in memory, in the nervous dreams of anyone who's ever wanted to escape.

A hundred years later: monuments made of glass and light. Two wings rising from concrete. Thousands of people moving beneath them, not knowing the name carved barely visible at the base. But they're moving through space differently because once, a man refused to accept the world as it was.

They don't know the cost. The trembling hands. The guilt. The loneliness of being right.

They only know: the sky is closer now. And it's theirs.

ImagiCrafters

@INDIKATIVE-ImagiCrafters

0Creations

View Artist Portfolio

Edition 1 Theme

The Architecture of Feeling

Pick a feeling - (wonder, longing, awe, the quiet kind of joy, it's up to you!) - and build a Body of Work that tells a story about it. Tell one story from start to finish, as a collection of images and/or videos, or as a single edited video. Think short film or mini exhibition, not a single image, clip, or mood board.

We want to feel it, not just see it.

Full competition details

Key Dates

Entries open

Jun 15, 2026

Entries close, judging begins

Jul 12, 2026

Winners announced

Jul 20, 2026

Competition complete.

Awards & Prizes

🏆
Best Overall$1,000 USD grant + 30,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine
📖
Best Storytelling15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
✨
Most Creative15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
❤️
Community Favourite15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
🎖️
Highly Commended (×10)2,400 fast credits each + print copy of Prompt Magazine + Highly Commended badge

Full prize list

Judging Panel

Angus Russell

Founder, NightCafe

Sarah Impey

AI Community Manager, Runware

Marco Pittarello

Founder, Prompt Magazine

Gully Ahmed

NightCafe community member

About the panel · How it's judged

FAQ

Discuss NightCafe Select

ImagiCrafters

@INDIKATIVE-ImagiCrafters

0Creations

View Artist Portfolio

Key Dates

Entries open

Jun 15, 2026

Entries close, judging begins

Jul 12, 2026

Winners announced

Jul 20, 2026

Competition complete.

Judging Panel

Angus Russell

Founder, NightCafe

Sarah Impey

AI Community Manager, Runware

Marco Pittarello

Founder, Prompt Magazine

Gully Ahmed

NightCafe community member

About the panel · How it's judged

Discuss NightCafe Select

ImagiCrafters

@INDIKATIVE-ImagiCrafters

0Creations

View Artist Portfolio

Edition 1 Theme

The Architecture of Feeling

We want to feel it, not just see it.

Full competition details

Key Dates

Entries open

Jun 15, 2026

Entries close, judging begins

Jul 12, 2026

Winners announced

Jul 20, 2026

Competition complete.

Awards & Prizes

🏆
Best Overall$1,000 USD grant + 30,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine
📖
Best Storytelling15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
✨
Most Creative15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
❤️
Community Favourite15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
🎖️
Highly Commended (×10)2,400 fast credits each + print copy of Prompt Magazine + Highly Commended badge

Full prize list

Judging Panel

Angus Russell

Founder, NightCafe

Sarah Impey

AI Community Manager, Runware

Marco Pittarello

Founder, Prompt Magazine

Gully Ahmed

NightCafe community member

About the panel · How it's judged

FAQ

Discuss NightCafe Select

Edition 1 Theme

The Architecture of Feeling

We want to feel it, not just see it.

Full competition details

Awards & Prizes

🏆
Best Overall$1,000 USD grant + 30,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine
📖
Best Storytelling15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
✨
Most Creative15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
❤️
Community Favourite15,000 fast credits + feature in Prompt Magazine + verified Select portfolio
🎖️
Highly Commended (×10)2,400 fast credits each + print copy of Prompt Magazine + Highly Commended badge

Full prize list