“Dreams of Violets,” a 75-minute, fully AI-generated feature film about Iran’s anti-government protests, premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2026. The film is directed by Iranian-British filmmaker Ash Koosha, who created it from his home in London. According to multiple outlets, it is a fictional dramatization inspired by journalistic reporting, photographs, and eyewitness accounts tied to Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters in January, with portrayals focusing on memory, censorship, and resistance. Sources describe a production process that uses AI for people, images, and characters, with Koosha saying there are no actors, no cameras, no sets, and no film crew. Koosha says he made the film because filming inside Iran was unsafe. Several reports cite a reported production cost of less than about $2,000 (or under €2,000) and production time of roughly three months. Tribeca leaders, including co-founder Jane Rosenthal, publicly defend the decision to screen the film, while industry observers note the broader debate over whether AI can tell human stories and what it means for filmmaking. Overall, the premiere is framed as a historic first for major festival acceptance of a fully AI-generated live-action feature.
Tribeca to premiere AI-generated film “Dreams of Violets” depicting Iran protests
“Dreams of Violets,” a 75-minute, fully AI-generated feature film about Iran’s anti-government protests, premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2026. The film is directed by Iranian-British fi...
- “Dreams of Violets” is a 75-minute film that premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2026.
- The film is fully AI-generated, with AI-created people/images and no traditional actors, camera work, or film crew.
- It is a fictional dramatization based on journalistic reports, photographs, and eyewitness accounts about Iran protests and the January crackdown.
- Director Ash Koosha says it was made using AI because filming inside Iran was too dangerous.
- Tribeca and parts of the industry defend the premiere, while the screening renews debate about ethics and the future of filmmaking.
Does this mean that AI can "make a movie"? No. But it does mean that AI can give you scenes of roiling tumultuous Civil War set in the hurly-burly of Tehran at sunset, with soldiers roaming the streets and forcing citizens into vans as others scurry out of the way, and it can make you believe your eyes.
2 months agoThe docudrama “Dreams of Violets” premiered at the Tribeca Festival, a sign that some in Hollywood have warmed to the technology.
2 months ago'Dreams of Violets' premieres at the festival, as an industry watches nervously.
2 months agoWhen "Dreams of Violets" premieres tomorrow night at the Tribeca Film Festival, Hollywood will face its boogeyman. That’s because "Dreams of Violets" will be the first movie completely generated by AI to be part of a major festival's lineup.
2 months agoA film about Iran's protest movement is making cinema history. "Dreams of Violets" is the first fully AI-generated feature film ever selected by a major international film festival. The 75-minute drama will premiere at New York's Tribeca Festival next week. Created by Iranian-British director Ash Koosha from his home in London, the film took just three months to produce and cost less than 2,000 euros. There were no actors, no cameras, no sets and no film crew. Koosha says the film simply could not have been made through conventional means. Living in exile and unable to safely film inside Iran, he turned to AI to recreate events linked to the country's deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters. The film is based on journalistic reports, photographs and eyewitness accounts, and explores themes of memory, censorship and resistance. But as Tribeca becomes the first major festival to embrace a fully AI-generated feature, the film is also reigniting a fierce debate. Can artificial intelligence tell deeply human stories? Does AI democratise filmmaking or threaten the future of the industry? Eve Jackson speaks to Ash Koosha about Iran, ethics and the future of cinema.
2 months agoIt should have taken years, but Ash Koosha made a drama about Iran’s anti-government protests in weeks – and now it’s the first AI-made movie to screen at a major film festival. It could transform indie film-making, claims the directorNext week a breakthrough 75-minute drama about the brutal crackdown in Iran on anti-government protesters in January will premiere at the Tribeca film festival in New York. It is called Dreams of Violets and is based on journalism, video footage and eyewitness accounts. “I would say 80% of it is a recreation of events that actually happened,” says its Iranian-British director Ash Koosha. But Dreams of Violets is a work of fiction, not a documentary: a drama following a group of strangers caught up in the protests, who meet by chance in an alleyway. How on earth has Koosha managed to pull together a drama about the killings in less than six months?The answer, it turns out, is by using artificial intelligence. Every image and character in Dreams of Violets is AI-generated. Koosha says he created the characters by describing their physical appearances, using people he has known in the past as references. It would be too dangerous to base characters on living people in Iran, he says. “Because of the security issue, it would not be safe for the characters to even remotely resemble someone.” Continue reading...
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