How the AI Film About the 'Swan Lake' Premiere Was

Gulnara Dinekaeva, creator of the short film "Swan Lake. The Premiere That Wasn't Believed," shared her experience participating in the final round of ArtMasters 2026.

Historical Context and Preparation

The film tells the story of the first performance of the ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1877, which was received coolly by critics. The author revised the script: a new character was added—a theater worker whose memories connect the past with the modern recognition of the masterpiece. Historical research took about two days to find visual materials and documentaries.

Technology Stack and Tools

The entire process from research to the finished film took 10 days. The budget amounted to 50,000 tokens of the TapNow aggregator (equivalent to ~$500), of which about 47,000 were used. To optimize costs, Gemini Flash was used instead of Claude or ChatGPT, and promotions on Seedance 2.5 and Wan 3 were taken into account.

The author has a background in graphic design and has been working with neural networks for two years. Despite not winning a prize, the film received the Audience Choice Award, which was a success after participating last year.

Participant Experience