Dreams of Violets: $2K AI film premieres at Tribeca Festival
First full-length AI-generated film accepted at a major festival.
Dreams of Violets, a 75-minute AI-generated film by Fountain 0, makes history as the first full-length, live-action AI film accepted into a major festival's main program (Tribeca Festival, June 10). The film dramatizes the Iranian government's January 2026 mass killing of protestors, using AI to create all people and images based on journalistic reports, photographs, and eyewitness accounts. Co-directors Ash and Pooya Koosha, who left Iran in 2009, produced the film for just $2,000.
To create the film, the brothers used Google's Nano Banana for still images, Kling AI for video generation, and Anthropic's Claude for language editing. The film's acceptance at Tribeca follows a trend of AI adoption in Hollywood—Netflix has launched an AI animation studio, Prime Video ordered three AI-generated series, and Sora-powered Critterz seeks a new partner after OpenAI shuttered Sora. The Kooshas acknowledge industry concerns about job displacement but note the film would not exist without these tools.
- Dreams of Violets is a 75-minute AI-generated film costing $2,000.
- It premieres at Tribeca Festival on June 10—first full-length AI film in a major festival's main program.
- Uses Google Nano Banana, Kling AI, and Anthropic Claude; tells story of Iran's 2026 mass killing of protestors.
Why It Matters
Demonstrates AI filmmaking's viability at major festivals, raising urgent questions about Hollywood's future and creative ownership.