[ Evaluation architecture ]
Jury method
HKAIIFF 2026 published nineteen official honours through a five-tier structure, an independent Expert Jury record, an Audience Index and reviewer-ready provenance.
Five-tier award structure
Tier 1 is the Unicorn Gold Award. Tier 2 covers the four competition pillars. Tier 3 recognises craft and workflow innovators. Tier 4 addresses future horizons and stewardship. Tier 5 elevates emerging voices. The published distribution is 1 + 4 + 7 + 4 + 3.
- Tier 1 — Flagship unicorn honour
- Tier 2 — The four competition pillars
- Tier 3 — Craft and workflow innovators
- Tier 4 — Future horizons and stewardship
- Tier 5 — Emerging voices
Expert Jury dimensions
Expert Jury records report Artistic, Technical, Ethical and Community dimensions alongside an overall finding. Written findings remain part of the official film record and are not reduced to a single number.
Artistic · Technical · Ethical · Community
The Audience Index
Audience response is preserved as a composite Audience Index produced by the programme office's evaluation system. It remains an independent record and does not replace the Expert Jury decision.
AI participation is not the sole criterion
The 51% AI participation standard is a qualification marker for AI-native cinema. Awards weigh artistic judgment, technical control, ethical practice, community value and provenance—not AI percentage alone.
Rights, authorship and provenance
Each laureate record includes workflow stages and reviewer-ready evidence covering creative authorship, rights envelopes, provenance and human approval. Indexing and technical labels do not create legal title.
This laureate record is a forward-looking curatorial work of the HKAIIFF programme office, authored with generative systems.