'Dreams of Violets' Becomes the First Fully AI Generated Feature in Tribeca's Official Lineup

A feature film running 75 minutes, made for approximately $2,000 in a London flat, will have its world premiere on June 10 at the Tribeca Film Festival, entering the official lineup as the first fully AI generated narrative feature accepted into a major festival's main program.

Directed by Ash and Pooya Koosha, tech entrepreneur brothers and first time filmmakers, "Dreams of Violets" depicts a fictional dramatization of the January 2026 Iranian civilian massacre, in which death tolls exceeded 7,000. No actors, sets, or cameras were used at any point in production.

Made From Exile, With No Access to Iran

Ash Koosha made the film while living outside Iran, with no physical access to the country, its locations, or its people. "I am one person, in exile, with no access to Iran, no access to the locations, no access to the people", Koosha told trade press. Every image and every person depicted in the film was generated by AI tools working from journalistic reports, photographs, and eyewitness accounts.

The production relied on five AI systems: Kling AI for video generation, Anthropic's Claude for language editing, Google Gemini for research and imagery, Google Nanobanana for additional imagery, and Fountain 0's proprietary technology for blocking and frame accuracy. Fountain 0, the production company behind the film, describes itself as a studio that "blends traditional creative principles with frontier technologies to produce previously impossible movies and TV shows".

A Budget That Resets the Benchmark

The $2,000 total budget is roughly 200 times lower than the production cost of another fully AI generated feature that screened in a major festival's marketplace section earlier in May. That specific comparison has not appeared in any trade coverage of either project. The difference illustrates how widely AI production costs vary depending on the tools, timeline, and workflow, even across films made in the same format.

Ash and Pooya Koosha founded Claigrid, a cloud AI personalization company, with former NBC Cable president Tom Rogers serving as executive chairman. The entire feature was completed in approximately three months.

Tribeca's 25th Anniversary Official Selection

Tribeca Film Festival founder Jane Rosenthal cited both the film's subject and its method of production as reasons for the selection. "At this time in history when both artificial intelligence and Iran are central to global conversation, this film offers audiences a rare and intimate perspective", Rosenthal said.

The festival runs June 3 through 14 in New York City, marking its 25th anniversary edition. The 2026 program includes 118 features, among them 103 world premieres, and the "Dreams of Violets" premiere is scheduled for June 10 at the AMC Flat Iron Theatre in Manhattan.

Previous fully AI generated features have screened in festival marketplace sections and sidebar programs, where any project can pay for a slot. An official lineup selection is decided entirely by the programming team, making this the first time a major festival has placed a fully AI generated feature in its curated program.

An Ethical Question Built Into the Film

Ash Koosha has not deflected the moral complexity of the project. He acknowledged that using AI to film the deaths of real people raises difficult questions. The film reconstructs an event that Koosha, living in exile, had no physical means to document.

The Kling AI video generation tools used in "Dreams of Violets" were also at the center of a filmmaker initiative that brought multiple AI projects to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month. Details on that program and the verified production data from three directors are in the Kling AI filmmaker initiative coverage.

The same week "Dreams of Violets" secured its Tribeca premiere, Critterz, a commercial AI animated feature with a $30 million budget and distribution from AGC Studios, was announced with the Paddington franchise writers attached. The two projects represent opposite ends of the AI filmmaking range: one made for $2,000 by a single director in exile, the other a fully financed commercial production.

Filmmakers who want to work with AI video generation tools can access them through the AI FILMS Studio video workspace.

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Sources

Deadline | Variety | The Hollywood Reporter | IndieWire | Cineuropa | Tribeca Film Festival