1st Prize: $30,000 Your project gets greenlit with a Cascade production package of 1.5 million credits to take it into production, contingent on signing a separate Winner's Agreement. Every production package is a set credit allocation, not funding for a full production. Plus creative partner status, a featured case study and interview, and an invitation to the Greenlight award ceremony.
2nd Prize: $20,000 Creative partner status, a featured showcase, and your project gets greenlit with a Cascade production package of 1,000,000 credits, contingent on signing a separate Winner's Agreement.
3rd Prize (Podium Placed): $10,000 Creative Partner status, a featured showcase, and your project gets greenlit with a Cascade production package of 500,000 credits, contingent on signing a separate Winner's Agreement.
Fan Favourite: $5,000 Decided by public vote, separate from the jury's placements, not a substitute for 2nd or 3rd. Creative Partner status, a featured showcase, and your project gets greenlit with a Cascade production package of 500,000 credits, contingent on signing a separate Winner's Agreement.
- You must be 18 or older to enter. Cascade employees, their immediate families, and anyone on the judging panel can't enter. The competition isn't open to anyone living in, or located at the time of entry in, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, Belarus, Crimea or other Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, mainland China, Brazil or Italy, or to anyone on a UN, UAE, UK, EU or US sanctions list.
- Entry is free. No paid Cascade subscription required; register on the competition page and, once we've checked your registration, we'll email you a link that adds 5,000 free credits to your Cascade account. During the competition, when entrants top up in Cascade, their next 5,000 credits are automatically 50% off, then 20% off after that.
- Cascade must be your primary creative tool, used substantially throughout. Your free credits unlock Seedance 2.5, but using it is optional.
- Runtime: minimum of 1 minute, maximum of 5 minutes, not counting the Greenlight idents. We're after a teaser or pilot that pitches your story, not the finished film. Your free credits are a starting point, so a longer cut will likely need extra credits at the entrant discount.
- Aspect ratio: your uploaded film must be 16:9 (landscape).
- Multiple entries are welcome, as long as each comes from its own separate Cascade project. Only one prize can be placed per person or team, regardless of how many entries you submit. If you're entering as a team, nominate one person as your team's lead when you submit – that's who we'll contact, and who the prize (and the Winner's Agreement) is issued to.
- Post your entry publicly on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X or LinkedIn before you submit it, with the official Greenlight idents at the start and end, tagging Cascade and #CascadeGreenlight. Download the idents from the competition page and use them as supplied, without editing them.
- Your entry must be your own original work. Anything in it that isn't generated in Cascade (footage, music, a person's likeness) needs to be something you own or have permission to use.
- Cascade may ask to see the Cascade project behind any entry, to confirm it was built here.
- Entries that are obscene, offensive, defamatory, infringe someone else's rights, or otherwise breach these rules can be disqualified at our discretion, including after a prize has been paid, if we find out later.
- Entries obtained through fraud, bought or manipulated votes or views, or automated/bot submission will be disqualified.
Head to the Greenlight page and use the entry form to register. By entering, you confirm you've read and accept these Official Contest Rules and the full Terms & Conditions.
We check every registration before free credits are sent, to keep places for real filmmakers and creators.
If selected, you will receive an email with a link that adds 5,000 free credits to the Cascade account with your registered email (new to Cascade? Sign up with that email first). The credits also unlock Seedance 2.5, and get you 50% off your next 5,000 credits and 20% off after that.
1. Make your teaser or pilot, 1 to 5 minutes in length (excluding Greenlight idents), in its own Cascade project.
2. Post it publicly with the official Greenlight idents (these will be emailed to successful registrants) at the start and end, with the hashtag #CascadeGreenlight and tag Cascade, before the closing date.
3. Submit your entry through "Submit your entry" on the competition page, using your registered email, including a thumbnail of your project.
4. Top entries are verified as Official Selection, then reviewed by our jury on story and craft, brief adherence, technical execution and originality.
5. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place are the jury's picks. Fan Favourite is decided separately, by public vote via a custom-built form
6.Winners are notified, verified, and paid out per the Terms & Conditions.
13 October 2026 Registration opens
Tuesday 15 December 2026 Submission Deadline: 11:59pm GST (UTC+4) Any application submitted after this date won’t be eligible.
Private info (do not include in live web): Deadline Extension Friday 18 December 2026
Early February 2027 Winners announced at the Greenlight award ceremony
