NEW YORK (AP) -- Artificial intelligence 's use in movie making is exploding. And a young film festival, now in its junior year, is showcasing what this technology can do on screen today.

The annual AI Film Festival organized by Runway, a company that specializes in AI-generated video, kicked off in New York Thursday night with ten short films from around the world making their debut on the big screen.

"Three years ago, this was such a crazy idea," Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela told the crowd. "Today, millions of people are making billions of videos using tools we only dreamed of."

The film festival itself has grown significantly since its 2023 debut. About 300 people submitted films when it first began, Valenzuela said, compared to about 6,000 submissions received this year.

The one and half-hour lineup stretched across a range of creative styles and ambitious themes -- with Jacob Alder's " Total Pixel Space " taking home the festival's top prize. The 9-minute and 28-second film questions how many possible images -- real or not -- exist in the digital space, and uses math to calculate a colossal number. A stunning series of images, ranging from the familiar life moments to those that completely bend reality, gives viewers a glimpse of what's out there.

Meanwhile, Andrew Salter's "Jailbird," which snagged second place, chronicles a chicken's journey -- from the bird's perspective -- to a human prison in the United Kingdom to take part in a joint-rehabilitation program. And "One," a futuristic story by Ricardo Villavicencio and Edward Saatchi about interplanetary travel followed in third place.

The 10 films shown were finalists selected from thousands submitted to Runway's AI Film Festival this year. The shorts will also be shown at screenings held in Los Angeles and Paris next week.

How AI is used and executed is a factor judges evaluate when determining festival winners. But not every film entered was made entirely using AI. While submission criteria requires each movie include the use of AI-generated video, there's no set threshold, meaning some films can take a more "mixed media" approach -- such as combining live shots of actors or real-life images and sounds with AI-generated elements.

"We're trying to encourage people to explore and experiment with it," Valenzuela said in an interview prior to Thursday's screening.

Creating a coherent film using generative AI is no easy feat. It can take a long list of directions and numerous, detailed prompts to get even a short scene to make sense and look consistent. Still, the scope of what this kind of technology can do has grown significantly since Runway's first AI Film Festival in 2023 -- and Valenzuela says that's reflected in today's submissions. While there are still limits, AI-generated video is becoming more and more life-like and realistic.

Runway encourages the use of its own AI tools for films entered into its festival, but creators are also allowed to turn to other resources and tools as they put together the films -- and across the industry, tools that use AI to create videos spanning from text, image and/or audio prompts have rapidly improved over recent years, while becoming increasingly available.

"The way (this technology) has lived within film and media culture, and pop culture, has really accelerated," said Joshua Glick, an associate professor of film and electronic arts at Bard College.

He adds that Runway's film fest, which is among a handful of showcases aimed at spotlighting AI's creative capabilities, arrives as companies in this space are searching for heightened "legitimacy and recognition" for the tools they are creating -- with aims to cement partnerships in Hollywood as a result.

AI's presence in Hollywood is already far-reaching, and perhaps more expansive than many moviegoers realize. Beyond "headline-grabbing" (and at times controversial) applications that big-budget films have done to "de-age" actors or create eye-catching stunts, Glick notes, this technology is often incorporated in an array of post-production editing, digital touch-ups and additional behind-the-scenes work like sorting footage.

Industry executives repeatedly point to how AI can improve efficiency in the movie making process -- allowing creatives to perform a task that once took hours, for example, in a matter of minutes -- and foster further innovation.

Still, AI's rapid growth and adoption has also heightened anxieties around the burgeoning technology -- notably its implications for workers.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees -- which represents behind-the-scenes entertainment workers in the U.S. and Canada -- has "long embraced new technologies that enhance storytelling," Vanessa Holtgrewe, IATSE's international vice president, said in an emailed statement. "But we've also been clear: AI must not be used to undermine workers' rights or livelihoods."

IATSE and other unions have continued to meet with major studios and establish provisions in efforts to provide guardrails around the use of AI. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has also been vocal about AI protections for its members, a key sticking point in recent labor actions.

For Runway's AI Film Festival, Valenzuela hopes screening films that incorporate AI-generated video can showcase what's possible -- and how he says this technology can help, not hurt, creatives in the work they do today.

"It's natural to fear change ... (But) it's important to understand what you can do with it," Valenzuela said. Even filmmaking, he adds, was born "because of scientific breakthroughs that at the time were very uncomfortable for many people."