Artists’ Film International 2025

Crawford Art Gallery present’s Artists’ Film International 2025 (AFI) under the theme of Dream States.  Exploring dreaming as both a transformative state and a radical act, the films in Dream States challenge perceptions of reality and open pathways to alternative futures. 

Curated by sixteen cultural institutions across four continents, this year’s edition showcases a remarkable cohort of artists, each selected or commissioned by an AFI’25 partner. Presented in diverse formats, including exhibitions, festivals, and screenings, AFI’25 unfolds across the partners’ venues throughout 2025, guiding global audiences through mythic worlds, dystopian landscapes, fractured memories, and speculative possibilities.

At the intersection of personal consciousness and external realities, the program explores the emancipatory potential of dreams, altered states, and cinematic illusion. Reflecting upon shared histories, the artists’ eclectic and surreal dreamscapes - utopian and dystopian, intimate and collective - position cinema as the crucible of dream-making and a vehicle for changemaking.

This year Crawford Art Gallery selected Irish artist Elinor O’Donovan to present her short film Wild Geese 2: Wilder Geese.