Following the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many people started to dream about the Russian president Vladimir Putin. People have recorded and shared over 1000 of these dreams on social media, creating a surreal archive of the troubled collective unconscious in times of war. In Dreams of Putin, these visions are brought to life using a combination of found footage and scenes created in Unreal Engine, a 3D graphics programme for designing computer games. Fascinating in both its experimental form and themes, this is a film that is destined to remain in the subconscious of all who see it (Sheffield Doc Fest, 2026)

Dream States — the 18th edition of Artists’ Film International — explores the boundary between waking life and imagination, bringing together moving image works that reflect on how dreams shape our sense of time and identity. The programme highlights artists who use film to navigate memory, perception, and the subconscious, inviting viewers to inhabit these liminal spaces (Southwark Park Galleries, 2025).

Dreams are framed as social experiences that, when shared, become tools for imagining alternatives to racial capitalism, gentrification, and settler colonialism. Artists who draw on collective dreaming practices use them to expand the radical imagination and to cultivate spaces of solidarity and resistance (Max Haiven, 2022).