AI-generated film Dreams of Violets will premiere at Tribeca

In short: A 75-minute film made entirely with AI, Dreams of Violets, is set to premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 10.

What happened

Next month’s Tribeca Festival will include the premiere of Dreams of Violets, a film whose people and images were created using AI (software that can generate text, pictures, and video from prompts, like giving instructions to a very fast draft-maker).

The film is a fictional dramatization tied to reports about the Iranian government’s mass killing of protestors in January. A press release says the movie is based on journalistic reports, photographs, and eyewitness accounts.

The filmmakers are brothers Ash and Pooya Koosha, who left Iran in 2009. Pooya co-founded the company behind the film, Fountain 0, and Ash is the company’s CEO. Fountain 0 says the film cost $2,000 to make and calls it the first full-length, live-action, AI-generated film accepted into a major film festival.

The Hollywood Reporter previously noted that another AI-made film, Hell Grind, screened at Cannes, but in a side event rather than the main festival program. The Kooshas said they used different AI tools for different jobs, including making images, generating video, and polishing language.

Why it matters

This shows how much the cost and effort of making a movie can change when AI tools do some of the work. Supporters say it can help smaller teams tell stories they could not afford otherwise. Critics worry it could reduce paid work for people in the film industry, especially for artists and crew.

Source: The Verge AI