The 2026 Tribeca Festival has set the world premiere of “Dreams of Violets,” a fully AI-generated film produced by studio Foundation 0 aimed at showcasing Iranian civilian resistance.
The film’s premiere at Tribeca marks the first full-length, live-action film generated by AI to be accepted by a marquee film festival, according to Foundation 0.
The film, which will premiere June 10 during the festival’s 25th anniversary, is a 75-minute docudrama inspired by the protests that swept Tehran in January, highlighting five Iranians who meet in a Tehran alley before they’re executed, all witnessed from a window by Amir, a 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. The clashes reflect the real-world protests between Iranian authorities and civilians, which left at least 7,000 people dead and more than 50,000 people arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Director Ash Koosha, who is from Tehran, said in a statement that work on the film began shortly after he read reports on the massacre. He wanted to create a human-focused film, he said, but without access to a crew, actors or Iran itself, he opted for AI. The feature-length film cost about $2,000 to make, according to Foundation 0.
