AI Art Generators
Create
Anonymous User
NightCafe Select

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.

Free to enter · Open worldwide · Judged on skill · Entries close 12 July

Sponsored by

RunwarePrompt Magazine

submitted an entry to NightCafe Select

PRO
Posted 11 days ago

[The Anatomy Of Despair]

[The Anatomy of Despair is a visual study of grief after illness has taken the person who made a life feel whole.
The story follows a woman in the aftermath of her husband’s death. He has not vanished all at once; instead, he remains everywhere — in the shape of an empty chair, the weight of untouched bedclothes, the silence after a kettle boils, the rooms that continue to exist as if nothing sacred has been removed from them. His absence becomes almost physical. It moves through the house like weather.
The piece is not about death itself, but about the wake it leaves behind. Despair is shown as something with an anatomy: a heart, a breath, a shadow, a nervous system. It enters ordinary domestic rituals and quietly changes their meaning. The woman is not merely remembering him; she is learning the terrible new geometry of a world where he no longer answers.
As the sequence unfolds, the home becomes both refuge and wound. Light behaves like memory. Shadows lengthen into emotional presences. Objects become witnesses. The husband’s illness has ended, but its echo continues to rearrange her life, turning love into ache and habit into haunting.
Beneath the despair is the evidence of deep love. The pain is so large because the bond was real. I hope the piece asks the viewer to sit inside that contradiction: that grief can be devastating and still be an expression of devotion; that despair is not emptiness, but love with nowhere immediate to go.
By the end, The Anatomy of Despair becomes less a story of loss than a portrait of emotional survival. It traces the moment when a person stands among the ruins of a shared life and begins, almost imperceptibly, to keep breathing.]
Anonymous User
PRO
@Rey_Izain

  • 0Creations
 
View Profile

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

Winners announced in 3d 21h 45m

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

Gully Ahmed

NightCafe community member

About the panel · How it's judged

FAQ

Discuss NightCafe Select

PRO
@Rey_Izain

  • 0Creations
 
View Profile

Key Dates

Entries open

Jun 15, 2026

Entries close, judging begins

Jul 12, 2026

Winners announced

Jul 20, 2026

Winners announced in 3d 21h 45m

Judging Panel

Angus Russell

Founder, NightCafe

Sarah Impey

AI Community Manager, Runware

Marco Pittarello

Founder, Prompt Magazine

Gully Ahmed

Gully Ahmed

NightCafe community member

About the panel · How it's judged

Discuss NightCafe Select

PRO
@Rey_Izain

  • 0Creations
 
View Profile

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

Winners announced in 3d 21h 45m

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

Gully Ahmed

NightCafe community member

About the panel · How it's judged

FAQ

Discuss NightCafe Select

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

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

FAQ