Season One · 2026
The Sound & Screen
AI Music Video Awards
No studio. No budget. No permission. Just people who saw something in their head and built it anyway. Nobody has been giving this work its due, so we are.
Entries are closed. Nominees are named live on Wednesday, October 14.
- Season opened
- Sept 9
- Entries closed
- Oct 7
- Nominees
- Oct 14
- Winners
- Oct 21
Every Wednesday · 7PM ET · live on TikTok @samoricoles
Why this exists
The work got good before anyone was watching.
Every Wednesday night, Sound & Screen reviews AI music videos submitted by the people who made them. In a few months the standard has moved from novelty to something else entirely. Videos with real story arcs. Characters who hold together from the first frame to the last. Cinematography that would pass on a network.
There is no awards show for any of it. Every existing music video award was built for productions with crews, budgets and permission, and none of them have a category that makes sense for what these creators are actually doing.
So this is the first one.
Seven awards
The categories
Seven, deliberately. Enough to honor real range, few enough that winning one still means something.
- 01
The headline
Best AI Music Video
Judged on all six criteria. The one video that did everything well and did it with a point of view.
- 02
The idea
Best Storytelling
A crafted narrative with a beginning and an end, not a run of beautiful shots in a row.
- 03
The look
Best Visual Style
Art direction and aesthetic command. Photoreal, Pixar-adjacent, art deco, hand-drawn, graphic. Judged against what it is trying to be.
- 04
The craft
Best Technical Achievement
Character consistency, clean execution, lip sync when it is used. The category that could not exist at any other awards show.
- 05
The world
Best Animation
A world built from nothing, not a camera pointed at one. Judged on movement, character design, and whether the animation serves the song.
- 06
The message
Best Social Commentary
A video that uses its running time to say something about the world. Judged on whether the point lands, not on whether the judges agree with it.
- 07
The crowd
Viewers' Choice
Decided entirely by public vote from October 14 to 20. No judges. This one belongs to the audience.
How it is decided
Judged on craft, not on followers.
A panel of three judges scores every nominee against six criteria. The panel carries 70% of the result and the public vote carries 30%, which means the crowd can swing a close race but cannot hand anyone a win on audience size alone. Viewers’ Choice is the exception: that one is 100% yours.
Story
Is there a crafted idea, or just a run of nice shots?
Vision
Creativity and originality. Did they go past the obvious version of this song?
Cinematography
Framing, lighting, camera movement, editing. Industry standard within its own style.
Character & World Consistency
Same face, same wardrobe, same world, first frame to last.
Technical Execution
Clean shots. No artifacts, no morphing, no transitions that fall apart.
Song Service
Does the video make the track hit harder than it does on its own?
Lip sync is a deduction, not a category. You never have to use it, and plenty of the best work does not. Use it well and it costs you nothing. Use it badly and it costs you up to five points.
The season
Five Wednesdays on the screen. Entries are closed.
Season One was every show between September 9 and October 7, and every video played on air in that window is in consideration. What is left happens on two more Sound & Screen nights, 7PM ET, live on TikTok. Nothing happens off camera.
- Show 1 Sept 9
- Show 2 Sept 16
- Show 3 Sept 23
- Show 4 Sept 30
- Show 5 Oct 7
Then the two that decide it:
- Wednesday Oct 7
Entries closed
The last show of the season. Nothing played after this makes Season One.
- Wednesday Oct 14
Nominees announced
Live on the show. Public voting opens the same night and runs seven days.
- Wednesday Oct 21
Winners crowned
Live on Sound & Screen. Seven awards, one season, first time anyone has done this.
What happens next
The entries are in.
There was never a form. Every video played on the show between September 9 and October 7 is in consideration for Season One. Now it goes to the judges and the public.
- 01
Nominees are named
Wednesday, October 14, 7PM ET, live on TikTok. The nominees are named on the show.
- 02
The public votes
Voting opens the same night and runs through October 20. It carries 30% of every judged award and all of Viewers’ Choice.
- 03
Winners are crowned
Wednesday, October 21, live on Sound & Screen. The winning work plays on air and the creator is credited by name.
What qualified
The rules, all of them.
Short list on purpose. If it was yours and it got played, it counts.
- The video must be your own work.
- AI must be a meaningful part of how it was made. How much is up to you.
- Any song, any genre, any length. Yours or licensed.
- Any style. Photoreal, animated, graphic, abstract, mixed.
- Released or unreleased, as long as it is finished.
- It had to play on the show between Sept 9 and Oct 7. What counted was when it aired, not how old the video was.
- Replays that aired in that window count the same as first plays.
What winning gets you
Nominees are named live on the show on October 14. Winners are crowned on the 21st, with the winning work played on air and the creator credited by name. Best AI Music Video takes home the trophy.
Season One is about being first. Whoever wins this will still be putting it in their bio in three years.
Partnership
Put your brand on the first one.
There is exactly one chance to be the brand that backed the first awards for AI music video, and it does not come around again.
The audience is the buyer
Sound & Screen is watched by the people who actually make AI music videos, every week, by name. They are choosing their video model, their music generator and their editor right now, and most of them are choosing on what they see work on this show.
It is a category of one
Sound & Screen is the only live AI music video review show on social. These are the only awards for the form. A sponsor is not buying placement in a crowded field, they are buying the field.
A season, not a single night
This runs live through the October 21 ceremony: the nominee announcement, then a week of public voting where every nominee is pushing it to their own audience. A partner is present across that run rather than attached to one broadcast.
There is only one Season One
Backing the first season of anything is a claim nobody can buy afterwards. Every season that follows will reference this one, and the brand that was there at the start is part of that story permanently.
What is available
Presenting sponsorship of Season One, individual category sponsorship, the trophy, and the prize pool. The full breakdown, the audience numbers and the dates go out the same day you ask.
Before you ask
Questions
Can I still get my video in?
Not for Season One. Entries closed with the October 7 show. Every video that played on air between September 9 and October 7 is in consideration, and nothing played after that counts toward this season.
Is my video in consideration?
If it played on Sound & Screen between September 9 and October 7, yes. A replay of something that aired before September 9 counts if the replay fell inside that window. How old the video is never mattered.
How will I know if I am nominated?
Nominees are named live on Sound & Screen on Wednesday, October 14, at 7PM ET on TikTok.
Did I have to be an AI Creator Society member?
No. Every video that played in the window is in consideration, member or not.
Does lip sync have to be in it?
No, and skipping it is often the smarter call with AI. Lip sync is never scored as its own category. It only costs you if you use it and it does not hold up.
My video is animated, not photoreal. Am I at a disadvantage?
No. Every judge scores a video against what it is trying to be, not against photorealism. Art deco is judged as art deco. That rule is at the top of the scoring sheet.
Who are the judges?
A panel of three. The panel decides 70% of every award except Viewers’ Choice, which is entirely yours.
The first awards for AI music video.
The entries are in. Somebody is going to be the first winner, and it may as well be you.