Embodiments of a system and method for automatic creation of a multimedia presentation or highlight collection from a collection of candidate contents are generally described herein. In some embodiments, each one of a plurality of videos or images in the candidate contents are automatically evaluated for quality, content, metadata, and desirability based on user specified inclusion factors. Inclusion factors may be utilized to generate one or more scores for the candidate contents, which provide for automatic ranking of the candidate contents. Based on scores generated from the selected inclusion factor criteria a highlight collection of images is automatically generated. The highlight collection can be included in a multimedia presentation, in the form of a memory book, slideshow, or digital narrative, and can be automatically generated from the plurality of videos or images.