The audience for Cinequest’s opening night at the California Theatre got a glimpse into the future of filmmaking, courtesy of a showcase of two-minute short films produced this year for MIT’s AI Filmmaking Hackathon.

That’s right, artificial intelligence — feared by some to be the harbinger of the apocalypse — found its way into the majestic California Theatre in San Jose. One minute, Jerry Nagano was showing his talents on the Mighty Wurlitzer organ — the hot, new tech of the early 20th century — and the next, the crowd was transfixed by the AI movies, made by young filmmakers using tools that didn’t exist a decade ago.