1. The Promoter
1.1 The promoter is Cascade Holdings Limited, a company registered under the laws of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), with its registered office at Level 3, Innovation One, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Commercial Licence number CL13908 ("Cascade", "we", "us"). Contact: support@cascadestudio.ai.
1.2 These terms apply to the Greenlight (the "Competition"). By entering, you agree to these terms and to the Cascade Terms of Service. If they conflict, these terms prevail in relation to the Competition.
2. Competition Period
2.1 The Competition opens at 18:00 Gulf Standard Time (GST, UTC+4) on 13 October 2026 and closes at 23:59 GST on 15 December 2026 (the "Closing Date"). Entries received after the Closing Date will not be accepted. Registration of interest opens on 13 October 2026, before the Competition opens, under the Register Your Interest Terms. Registering interest is not an Entry.
3. Eligibility
3.1 The Competition is open to individuals who are aged 18 or over, or the age of majority in their country of residence if that is higher, who hold a Cascade account, who have registered for the Competition under clause 6.1(a) (including by registering interest before the Competition opens), whose registration Cascade has accepted under clause 6.5, and who are not excluded under clause 4.
3.2 The following may not enter: employees, officers and contractors of Cascade and its group companies, and of any agency involved in the Competition; members of the judging panel; and the immediate family and household members of any of these people.
3.3 Entries may be made individually or as a team. Every team member must meet this clause 3 and agree to these terms. The team must nominate one lead entrant when submitting. The lead entrant confirms they are authorised to act for the team. Cascade will deal only with the lead entrant, and any prize (and the Winner's Agreement) is issued to them.
4. Excluded territories and sanctions
4.1 The Competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law. It is not open to anyone resident in, or located in at the time of entry, any of the following: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Crimea region and the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and other Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, mainland China, Brazil and Italy.
4.2 The Competition is also not open to any person, or any person owned or controlled by a person, who is named on a sanctions list maintained by the UN, the UAE, the UK, the EU or the US.
4.3 You are responsible for making sure your participation is lawful where you live. Cascade may withhold or refuse any prize if paying it would, in Cascade's reasonable opinion, breach sanctions, anti-money-laundering or banking laws, or be blocked by a bank. In that case clause 17.4 applies.
5. No purchase necessary
5.1 Entry is free. No paid Cascade subscription or purchase is needed to enter or to win.
5.2 The Competition is skills based and credit consumption to produce an entry may exceed the credits provided as part of the competition. Credits are used when you generate images and video. Using Gary, Cascade's filmmaking agent, and editing, rendering and storing your project in Cascade do not use credits.
6. How to enter
6.1 To enter, you must, before the Closing Date:
(a) register for the Competition at https://cascadestudio.ai/competition, claim your free credits using the emailed link under clause 7, then create an original film in Cascade, of no less than 1 minute and no more than 5 minutes (not counting the Greenlight idents), in a 16:9 (landscape) aspect ratio, in English, or with English subtitles;
(b) post the film publicly on at least one of Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X or LinkedIn, with the official Greenlight idents supplied by Cascade added, unaltered, at the start and end of the film, with the hashtag #CascadeGreenlight, and a tag or mention of the official Cascade account on that platform and
(c) complete the entry form sent to the email address you registered with, including the link to your post, the name of the Cascade project the film was made in, and a written pitch of up to 250 words explaining how the story could become a full short film, feature or series (the "Pitch").
6.2 The film and Pitch together form an "Entry". You may submit multiple Entries, but each must be made in its own separate Cascade project. You may bring your own existing assets, such as reference images, artwork, music or sound, into Cascade, as long as you hold the rights to them (see clause 10.1). Every shot in your film must be built, and its video generated, in Cascade. Video generated or filmed outside Cascade and uploaded into the Cascade platform is not eligible. Once your shots are generated, you may complete your edit in Cascade, or download your videos and complete the edit, colour grade, titles and sound in other software.
6.3 Entries must be created during the Competition Period. They must not have been published, entered into another competition, or awarded a prize before. Your post must stay public until the winners are announced. Cascade grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use the Greenlight idents only in your Entry and its posts for the Competition. The idents remain Cascade's property.
6.4 Incomplete, corrupted or non-compliant Entries are invalid. Cascade is not responsible for Entries lost or delayed because of technical failures, including failures of third-party platforms.
6.5 Cascade reviews every registration before free competition credits are issued, to confirm that each registrant is a real, eligible individual. This may include checking the details given on the registration form, such as a LinkedIn profile or a website or portfolio link. Cascade may decline any registration, or withdraw free competition credits, that it reasonably believes is fake, duplicated, automated, ineligible or in breach of these terms.
7. Competition Credits
7.1 Each person whose registration is accepted under clause 6.5 will be emailed a personal link, from the start of the Competition Period, to claim a one-time allocation of 5,000 free credits ("Competition Credits"). The link can be used once only. Clicking it adds the Competition Credits automatically to the Cascade account (new or existing) registered with the same email address. If you do not yet have a Cascade account, create one with that email address and the Competition Credits will be added to it. Any free trial credits left in the account are removed when the Competition Credits are added and replaced by the Competition Credits; credits you have bought stay in your account. The Competition Credits also unlock Seedance 2.5 in that account for the Competition Period. One allocation of Competition Credits per person, however many Entries they make; claiming more than one allocation by a single person or team is cause for automatic disqualification. During the Competition Period, registered entrants who top up in Cascade get their next 5,000 credits at 50% off and further credits at 20% off, applied automatically to the account that received the Competition Credits; purchased credits do not expire.
7.2 Competition Credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred or refunded, expire at the Closing Date, or at the end of any extension under clause 21.3, and are subject to the Cascade Terms of Service. Registering more than once, or creating multiple accounts, to obtain extra Competition Credits is grounds for disqualification. Places are limited and Competition Credits are issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Cascade may limit the total number of registrations or Competition Credit allocations, or close registration, under clause 21.
8. Content standards
8.1 Your Entry must not:(a) depict, imitate or use the name, voice or likeness of any celebrity, public figure or other well-known real person, or of any other real, identifiable person (including yourself) unless you hold their written consent to the use of their likeness in AI-generated content, which you must produce on request;
(b) include any third-party copyright work, character, music, trade mark or logo that you are not licensed to use;
(c) be defamatory, obscene, sexually explicit, gratuitously violent, hateful or discriminatory;
(d) offend or insult any religion; disparage any state, its symbols, institutions or leaders; or otherwise breach public order or morals under the laws of the UAE;
(e) promote illegal activity, drugs, gambling or weapons, or show minors in any inappropriate way;
(f) present AI-generated material as genuine news, events or footage in a misleading way; or
(g) breach the acceptable use policies of Cascade or Seedance, or the rules of the platform it is posted on.
8.2 Cascade may reject or remove any Entry that it reasonably considers breaches this clause.
9. Ownership and licence
9.1 You keep ownership of your Entry and any intellectual property rights in it. Once you have submitted it, you are free to enter it into other competitions and festivals, subject to clause 6.3 and the licence in clause 9.2.
9.2 You grant Cascade a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, display, publish and communicate your Entry to the public. The licence includes the right to excerpt, clip, caption, subtitle and add Cascade branding. It covers running the Competition (including the public vote), announcing results, and Cascade's own marketing. Cascade may sub-license these rights to its group companies and service providers solely for those purposes. The licence you grant to Cascade is perpetual.
9.3 You consent to the reasonable editing, cropping and excerpting described above. Cascade will credit you by name or handle where reasonably practicable.
9.4 Your Entry and your data will not be used to train AI. Cascade will not use your Entry, or any prompts, images, footage, audio or other material you create, upload or submit for the Competition, to train, fine-tune or improve any artificial intelligence or machine learning model, and will not allow its group companies, service providers or Competition partners to do so. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership of your Entry or its intellectual property to Cascade.
10. Warranties and Indemnity
10.1 You confirm that: your Entry is your own original work; it complies with clause 8; neither the Entry nor anything used to create it infringes the intellectual property, privacy or other rights of any person; you hold all necessary consents from anyone who appears in it; and it is not subject to any agreement with a third party that would conflict with these terms.
10.2 To the extent permitted by law, you will indemnify Cascade against any claim, loss or reasonable expense arising from a breach of these warranties.
10.3 Whether, and to what extent, AI-assisted works are protected by copyright varies by country. Cascade makes no statement about the copyright status of any Entry.11. Judging
11.1 First, second and third places are awarded by a panel of independent judges plus a head judge appointed by Cascade the "Head Judge", together the "Panel". The Head Judge chairs the Panel and has the casting vote under clause 13. The Panel scores each eligible Entry against these criteria:
(a) Story & Craft: quality of storytelling and the creative choices made;
(b) Brief Adherence: whether this is a great story that deserves a shot and could scale into a feature film, an episodic series or a longer short film, judged against both the film and the Pitch;
(c) Technical Execution: quality of the use of Cascade and Seedance, including consistency and polish; and
(d) Originality: the freshness and distinctiveness of the idea, voice or style.
11.2 Chance plays no part in selecting any winner. The Panel's decisions are final and binding, except in the case of manifest error.
11.3 Cascade reserves the right not to award a jury prize if no Entry reaches a reasonable minimum standard.
12. Fan Favourite
12.1 Fan Favourite is a separate prize decided by public vote, held after the Official Selection is announced, among the Official Selection and conducted through a custom form.
12.2 Each voter may cast one vote in total and must verify an email address. Votes generated by bots, scripts, purchased services, multiple accounts or other manipulation are void. Cascade may disqualify any Entry that it reasonably believes has benefited from manipulation.
12.3 An Entry cannot hold both a jury placement and Fan Favourite. If the top-voted Entry already holds a jury placement, Fan Favourite passes to the next-highest-voted Entry that does not.
13. Tie-breaks
13.1 An Entry may hold only one jury placement.
13.2 If two or more Entries have the same total jury score at a placement boundary, the tie is broken in favour of the higher Story & Craft score. If they are still tied, the higher Brief Adherence score wins. If they are still tied, the Head Judge has the casting vote.
13.3 If there is a tie in the Fan Favourite vote, it is broken in favour of the higher total jury score. If they are still tied, the Head Judge has the casting vote. No tie is decided by random draw.
14. Prizes
14.1 The prizes are as follows. Each winner is greenlit: the production package in each prize is a Greenlight under clause 18.
(a) First place: USD30,000 and a production package of 1,500,000 Cascade credits;
(b) Second place: USD20,000 and a production package of 1,000,000 Cascade credits;
(c) Third place: USD10,000 and a production package of 500,000 Cascade credits;
(d) Fan Favourite: USD5,000 and a production package of 500,000 Cascade credits.
14.2 Cash prizes are paid in USD by bank transfer within 30 days after the winner completes verification under clause 17. Cascade pays its own bank charges. Any receiving-bank charges and currency conversion costs are the winner's responsibility.
14.3 Team prizes are paid only to the lead entrant. Dividing a prize within a team is the team's responsibility, and Cascade has no liability for it.
14.4 Prizes cannot be transferred, and there is no cash alternative to any non-cash element. Cascade may substitute a prize of equal or greater value if circumstances beyond its reasonable control require it. Prize credits have no cash value, can be used only on the project of the winning Entry, and are subject to the winners' documentation and the Cascade Terms of Service.
15. Tax
15.1 Winners are responsible for any tax due on their prize in their own jurisdiction. Cascade may request any tax information it reasonably needs, and may deduct or withhold any amount it is required by law to deduct or withhold.
16. Notification
16.1 Winners will be notified by email, using the address given on the entry form, in early February 2027, when the results are announced. A winner must respond within 7 days of notification to be eligible to collect their prize.
17. Verification
17.1 No identity or eligibility checks are needed to enter. Before any prize is paid, winners must confirm their identity, age, country of residence and eligibility, pass sanctions screening, and provide bank details and any tax information required.
17.2 Cascade may also ask for access to the underlying Cascade project as proof of build.
17.3 Winners must complete verification within 14 days of notification.
17.4 If a winner does not respond under clause 16, cannot be verified, is found to be ineligible, or does not complete verification in time, Cascade may withhold the prize and award it to the next-placed eligible Entry.
18. The Greenlight
18.1 Each prize under clause 14.1 includes Cascade's commitment to take the winning Entry into production as a short film, feature film or series, with the format decided by Cascade in consultation with the winner, with a credit allocation equal to that winner's production package under clause 14.1 (the "Greenlight").
18.2 The Greenlight depends on the winner signing a separate Winner's Agreement with Cascade. The Winner's Agreement will set out the format, schedule, how the credits are used (on the winning project only) and ownership of rights in the production. Within the limits in 18.1, Cascade's decision on format and schedule is final.
18.3 If the Winner's Agreement has not been signed within 30 days of Cascade offering it, for reasons not caused by Cascade, the Greenlight lapses and Cascade may offer it to another eligible Entry. The winner's cash prize is not affected.
18.4 The Greenlight is a credit allocation only. It does not include cash funding, crew, services, help securing finance or distribution, or any other support from Cascade. Cascade may produce the Greenlight alone or with one or more partners. Cascade has no production obligation beyond what is set out in the signed Winner's Agreement.
19. Disqualification
19.1 Cascade may disqualify any Entrant or Entry that involves fraud, bought or manipulated votes or views, a breach of clause 8, ineligibility, or any other breach of these terms. If such a breach is discovered after a prize has been paid, Cascade may withdraw the prize or require it to be repaid.
20. Publicity
20.1 Winners agree that Cascade may use their name, social media handle, likeness and quotes about the Competition in announcements and marketing for 12 months from the date the results are announced. The Winners names and creation may exist on Cascade’s web and over social media sites in perpetuity. Winners agree to cooperate reasonably with the results announcement. The winners' names will be published on Cascade's website and/or official social media channels.
21. Changes and cancellation
21.1 Cascade may amend these terms, or postpone, suspend or cancel the Competition, if circumstances reasonably require it. Cascade will announce any material change on the Competition page.
21.2 Cascade will not make changes that materially disadvantage Entrants who have already entered, unless the change is caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control or is required by law.
21.3 Cascade may cap or close registration, limit the number of Competition Credit allocations, or extend the submission window if entry volume exceeds what can be supported within the Competition's compute and review budget.
22. Third-party platforms
22.1 The Competition is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram or Meta,, YouTube or Google, LinkedIn. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms. You release those platforms from any liability in connection with the Competition.
23. Liability
23.1 To the extent permitted by law, Cascade is not liable for: technical failures or platform outages; lost, late or corrupted Entries; unauthorised access to Entries; or any loss or damage arising from entering the Competition or from receiving or using a prize.
23.2 Subject to clause 23.3, Cascade's total liability to any Entrant in connection with the Competition is limited to the value of the prize awarded to that Entrant (if any), or otherwise USD $1.
23.3 Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or gross negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded, including under UAE law. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.
24. Your data
24.1 Cascade Holdings Limited, a company incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (licence CL13908), is the controller of personal data collected for the Competition.
24.2 Cascade uses registration, entry, voting and verification data to run the Competition, check registrations under clause 6.5 (including any LinkedIn profile or website or portfolio link given on the registration form), judge Entries, verify and pay winners, publicise winners as set out in clause 20, meet legal obligations (including sanctions screening and tax), and, where you have agreed, for marketing. Cascade may share Entries and entrant details with the Judging Panel and Competition partners for these purposes. Cascade does not use your personal data or your Entry to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models (see clause 9.4).
24.3 Your data may be transferred outside your country and the UAE to Cascade's service providers (including Zapier, which Cascade uses to move registration data into its systems, and Loops, which sends its emails and holds its mailing list), with appropriate safeguards. Cascade keeps it for [12] months after the Competition ends, or longer where the law requires.
24.4 You may exercise your rights under applicable law, including the DIFC Data Protection Law (DIFC Law No. 5 of 2020) and, where they apply, the EU and UK GDPR, by contacting privacy@cascadestudio.ai. See the Privacy Policy at https://cascadestudio.ai/privacy for more detail.
25. Governing law and disputes
25.1 These terms and the Competition are governed by the laws of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
25.2 The courts of the DIFC have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with the Competition. That includes the DIFC Courts' Small Claims Tribunal, where the claim is within its limits.
25.3 Nothing in this clause deprives a consumer of the protection of the mandatory laws of their country of residence, or of any right to bring proceedings in their local courts where those laws require it.
26. General
26.1 These terms are written in English. If they are translated, the English version prevails to the extent permitted by law.
26.2 If any provision of these terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the rest of the terms continue in effect.
26.3 If Cascade does not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of it.
26.4 Cascade may transfer its rights and obligations under these terms to a group company.
