Home › Opportunities › Agentic Cinema: The Blockbuster Hackathon
Google Cloud · HackathonAgentic Cinema: The Blockbuster Hackathon
A Google Cloud hackathon where the whole $75,000 pool is cash and it is split across five separate partner tracks — fifteen paid places rather than one grand prize, which is a far better shape of bet than a winner-takes-all event. Submissions close 9 September 2026.
Dates & timeline
Prizes
- $75,000 total, all in cash
- Five partner tracks (IBM, Grafana Labs, Parallel, ClickHouse, Replit), each with an identical prize table
- Per track: 1st $7,500, 2nd $4,500, 3rd $3,000
- Fifteen paying positions in total
- All five tracks pay the same, so the track you pick changes your odds, not your upside
- Over 8,000 participants registered at the time of writing, spread across five tracks
- Submission is a hosted URL, a 3-minute video and a public open-source repository
Why it's worth your time
Agentic Cinema is an online hackathon run by Google Cloud with IBM, Grafana Labs, Parallel, ClickHouse and Replit as partners. The brief is narrow and concrete: build a working agent, powered by Gemini and Google Cloud Agent Builder, that integrates one partner’s product or MCP server to drive a real media and entertainment workflow. You pick one partner track when you submit, and you are judged inside that track.
The prize structure is the reason it is worth your time. The $75,000 pool is all cash and is divided into five identical buckets, one per partner track — $7,500 for first, $4,500 for second and $3,000 for third. That is fifteen paying positions, and because entrants spread themselves across five tracks, the field you actually compete against is a fifth of the headline participant count. Choosing the least crowded track you can genuinely build for is a real strategic decision here, not a detail.
What you submit is light by hackathon standards: a hosted project URL, a three-minute demo video on YouTube or Vimeo that is publicly visible and in English or subtitled, and a public repository on GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket under a complete open-source licence. Judging is on technological implementation, design, potential impact and quality of the idea. The official rules exclude a specific list of countries and territories — Afghanistan, Antarctica, China, Djibouti, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Somalia, Venezuela, Western Sahara, Italy, Brazil, Quebec, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Belarus, Russia, Vietnam and the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. India is not on that list.
How to apply
Register on the official Devpost page and read the rules for your country before building — the excluded-territory list is specific.
Pick your partner track early (IBM, Grafana Labs, Parallel, ClickHouse or Replit). You are judged only against that track.
Build an agent on Gemini and Google Cloud Agent Builder that integrates that partner’s product or MCP server into a media or entertainment workflow.
Record a three-minute demo video, make it publicly visible on YouTube or Vimeo, and add English subtitles if you are not narrating in English.
Publish the code under a complete open-source licence and submit before 9 September 2026, 2:00pm PDT.
Frequently asked questions
Can students in India enter Agentic Cinema?
Yes. The official rules exclude a named list of countries and territories — including Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Italy, Brazil, Quebec, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Belarus, Russia and Vietnam — and India is not among them. You must be above the age of majority where you live.
How much can you win, and is it cash?
The full $75,000 pool is cash. It is split into five identical per-track tables paying $7,500 for first place, $4,500 for second and $3,000 for third, so there are fifteen paying positions overall.
Does it cost anything to enter?
No. The rules state "NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN." You may enter as an individual, a team or on behalf of an organisation.
What do I actually have to build?
A functional agent powered by Gemini and Google Cloud Agent Builder that integrates one partner entity’s product or MCP server to power a real media and entertainment workflow. Submissions are judged on technological implementation, design, potential impact and quality of the idea.
What is the deadline?
Submissions close on 9 September 2026 at 2:00pm PDT. The submission window opened on 27 July 2026.
Official links
US startups hiring on Tierones
Part-time, remote coding internships with funded US startups — quoted in USD per hour, open to verified 2nd- and 3rd-year students. Free for students, always.
Browse open roles