An AI-produced film about the Iranian resistance will premiere at the Tribeca Festival

The Tribeca Festival is securing the inclusion of a full-length AI-produced film in its lineup this year.

Dreams of Violetsa 74-minute film about the resistance in Iran, made without cameras and actors. Instead, filmmakers Ash and Pooya Koosha used AI tools to make a movie at a cost of just US$2,000.

The trailer for Dreams of Violets posted on YouTube on Wednesday described the film as a “docudrama feature inspired by real events from 47 years of resistance by Iranian citizens.”

“Through the eyes of five strangers, it brings the images of the protest to life quickly,” the description continues. “Early in the morning, as the Iranian army executes wounded protesters, a violent soldier finds the five hiding in a dangerous area. Above them, Amir, a child in a wheelchair, looks out the window and decides to take action.”

Iran has seen widespread and violent protests against its regime in the past few years over the actions of its morality police, mandatory hijabs and a stagnant economy, among other issues.

The vast majority of comments on Dreams of Violets the trailer criticized the film for its use of AI.

WATCH | See the AI ​​feature film trailer here:

Tribeca founder Jane Rosenthal dismissed the concerns, telling CBC News in a statement that the film is timely and appealing.

“The Tribeca Festival has long championed artists who push the boundaries of storytelling and explore new creative boundaries,” she said.

Rosenthal called the film “a powerful example of how emerging technologies like AI can be used not just as tools for innovation, but as vehicles for telling deeply human stories.”

He said the organizers of the festival were not only affected by the “technical success, but the emotional urgency and the urgency of the story itself.”

The film is not the first to stir up the AI ​​debate

Dreams of Violets will premiere on June 10 in New York City, but it is by no means the first film to generate debate about the inclusion of AI in the media. Some high-profile creators advocated its inclusion, while others criticized it.

Director Darren Aronofsky has embraced AI through his studio, Primordial Soup, which created a series of AI-generated short videos on the American Revolution.. Director Steven Soderbergh defended the use of Meta AI software in his book 2026 about John Lennon, which premiered earlier this month at the Cannes Film Festival.

However, AI production company Particle6 generated backlash when it promoted Tilly Norwood, a fully AI-generated “actress” it hoped to market as a star. And director James Cameron has said AI will never replace the actors and musicians in his films, a sentiment echoed by filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, who said he would “rather die” than use productive AI.

But Dreams of Violets director and writer Ash Koosha said he sees AI as a form of storytelling comparable to animated media.

“This is one of a kind, at least for me,” Koosha told CBC News.

Koosha, who is originally from Tehran, but now lives in London, UK, said hearing the news in January about the Iranian regime killing protesters prompted him to make the film.

He did it in the evenings and on weekends, using tools like Kling AI, Claude, Google Gemini and Nano Banana that he says allowed him to make changes quickly and cheaply.

Koosha is the founder of Source 0a company for AI-produced films and television series. Dreams of Violets is the company’s first film.

He said the cost, difficult subject matter and production time of a traditional, non-AI film about the protests in Iran would have made it an impossible project for him.

But Kate Ziegler, president of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) Toronto, said she’s worried about AI taking over human jobs and damaging “the creative spirit of humanity in us.”

He called for a broad discussion across industries about the implications of AI.

“Our industry, the film and television industry, is kind of the canary in the coal mine in this regard,” he said.

AI puts festivals in a tricky position, says professor

The emergence of AI means film festivals face a difficult balancing act, said Richard Lachman, a professor of digital media at Toronto Metropolitan University and author of the book. Digital Intelligence: Searching for Agency in the Age of AI.

On the one hand, he said that there has been comforting words in the industry, but on the other hand, technology has the power to open up the opportunity to make films.

“This film was made for $2,000 [US]and it is a festival competition. So there is an effect of the will of the people,” he said.

“Don’t have access to a large film crew and sets and an A-list cast? However, you can still create your own unique vision and get it out at the film festival.”

But Lachman said he has concerns about how audiences will interpret AI content that looks realistic.

“We have a lot of expectations, if it looks like a person, if it looks like photojournalism images, I will interpret them as photojournalism images,” he said.

“So I’m a little worried about warning everyone to ‘believe what you see’ because we can’t believe real news pictures the same way.”