Official 2024 Venice Immersive selection and competition revealed

The selection of projects for Venice Immersive, the XR – Extended Reality section of the 81^st Venice International Film Festival (28^th August – 7^th September 2024) of La Biennale di Venezia, is now complete. Launched in 2017, the section represents the first competition and official selection for works in Extended Reality in an A-list festival.

The official program will take place on the Venice Immersive Island (island of Lazzaretto Vecchio), a short distance from the Lido di Venezia, on the following dates:

• 27^th August (afternoon): press preview
• 28^th August: open exclusively to Press, Industry and Venice Immersive accreditations
• 29^th August – 7^th September: open to all accredited visitors

Venice Immersive is entirely devoted to immersive arts and media and includes all types of creative XR expression: 360° videos, virtual and mixed reality and XR works of any length, including installations, haptics and virtual worlds.

The Venice Immersive section of the 81^st Venice International Film Festival will be held with the support of VRChat.

Venice Immersive will present 63 projects from 25 countries:

• 26 projects in Competition, representing a selection of 19 world premieres and 7 international premieres of the world’s best immersive works
• 30 projects Out of Competition, an international selection of the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice International Film Festival; this section is divided into:
• Best of Experiences, 10 projects
• Best of Worlds, 20 projects, created by independent artists from all over the world on the VRChat social platform, an ecosystem of virtual worlds presented in guided tours
• 7 projects developed during the Biennale College Cinema – Immersive: 1 project produced thanks to the grant from this year’s eighth edition, 6 projects developed within the international workshop of the eighth, seventh, sixth and fifth editions.

The Venice International Film Festival was one of the first film festivals in the world to show an interest in Virtual Reality. The development of a VR Theatre in 2016 sparked enormous interest among the participants of the Venice Production Bridge. Starting in 2017, La Biennale di Venezia launched the first competition for works in Virtual Reality in an A-list festival, which was held for three editions, through 2019, on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio on the Lido, judged by an International Jury. The online accessibility of Venice VR Expanded over two editions (2020 and 2021) represented a new commitment and a new challenge to guarantee that the Venice International Film Festival would continue to offer the experience of this new art form, even in times of required social distancing. In 2022 the section, renamed Venice Immersive, returned in person to the island. Since the very first years, the section has been recognised as a unique event in the field and the most significant annual exhibition of immersive arts and media.

Accredited visitors to the Venice Film Festival will have access to all the titles in the line-up. There is also a dedicated Venice Immersive Accreditation reserved to people over 18 years of age that grants access to the projects of the section and is available in three formats:

• 2-DAYS Venice Immersive Accreditation (€ 40): valid for 2 days
• 5-DAYS Venice Immersive Accreditation (€ 60): valid for 5 days
• FULL Venice Immersive Accreditation (€ 100): valid from 28^th August to 7^th September

The members of the international Jury of Venice Immersive are:

• Celine Daemen – president: (The Netherlands) born in 1995, she is a director of transdisciplinary art. Her work develops at the interface of theatre, music, visual arts and digital media. She creates immersive experiences that invite the audience on a journey inwards and take them to a place where personal associations arise in response to universal philosophical questions. Celine is the founder of Studio Nergens. In 2022 her VR opera Eurydice, a descent into infinity premiered in the Venice Immersive selection in competition. After that, it received several awards during its international tour. Her latest VR opera Songs for a Passerby premiered last year at the Mostra. It won the Venice Immersive Grand Prize and has since been touring prestigious festivals and cultural venues around the world.
• Marion Burger: (France) born in 1987, she is a production designer who has worked on many feature films, including Divines by Houda Benyamina, that won the Caméra d’or at Cannes Film festival in 2016, Gagarine by Jérémy Trouilh and Fanny Liatard, in Cannes official selection in 2020, and more recently Mother and Son by Léonor Serraille, also in Cannes in 2022 edition. As a former graduate of the Duperré design school, she has always been attracted by the transversality of creative media. Emperor, an empathic VR experience co-created with Ilan J. Cohen, that won Venice Immersive achievement prize last year, marked her directorial debut.
• Adriaan Lokman: (The Netherlands) was born in 1960, he is creator of time based, linear, interactive and cross-media projects. After graduating at the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam in illustration and audio-visual design, he worked in Rotterdam, where he ran his production studio for animation, web design and event concepts. In 2002 his film Barcode was awarded the Grand Prix d’Annecy. In last edition of the Mostra Flow was awarded the Special Immersive Jury prize. In his short films, he investigated the boundaries between abstraction and reality, with the ongoing desire to involve the viewer.

The 2024 Venice Immersive Jury will award the following prizes:

• Venice Immersive Grand Prize
• Venice Immersive Special Jury Prize
• Venice Immersive Achievement Prize

–

VENICE IMMERSIVE

In Competition

MAMIE LOU
by ISABELLE ANDREANI
France, Luxembourg / 25’ / virtual reality 

MAMMARY MOUNTAIN
by TARA BAOTH MOONEY, CAMILLE C. BAKER, MAF’J ALVAREZ
UK, Ireland / 23’ / installation, haptic, virtual reality

UNE EAU LA NUIT (BODIES OF WATER)
by CHÉLANIE BEAUDIN-QUINTIN, CAROLINE LAURIN-BEAUCAGE
Canada / 10’ / virtual reality

UNCANNY ALLEY: A NEW DAY
by STEPHEN BUTCHKO, RICK TREWEEK
USA, South Africa / 75’ / world, virtual reality, immersive theatre

IN THE REALM OF RIPLEY
by SOO EUNG CHUCK CHAE, EUN JUNG CHAE
South Korea / 50’ / installation, virtual reality, interactive film

FREE UR HEAD
by TUNG-YEN CHOU
Taipei / 30’ / installation, virtual reality, live performance

PROJECT: LOST WORLDS
by FINS
USA / 60’ / world, virtual reality

THE ART OF CHANGE
by SIMONE FOUGNIER, VINCENT ROOIJERS
Italy, The Netherlands, USA / 10’ / virtual reality

OTO’S PLANET
by GWENAEL FRANÇOIS
Luxembourg, Canada, France / 28’ / virtual reality

UN SOIR AVEC LES IMPRESSIONNISTES, PARIS 1874
by PIERRE GABLE
France / 42’ / installation, virtual reality

CECI EST MON CŒUR
by STÉPHANE HUEBER-BLIES, NICOLAS BLIES
Luxembourg, Canada, France / 35’ / installation, haptic, projection

PUDICA
by KEISUKE ITOH
Japan / 15’ / installation, mixed reality

ADDRESS UNKNOWN: FUKUSHIMA NOW
by ARIF KHAN
Japan, USA, Taipei / 25’ / virtual reality

THE GUARDIANS OF JADE MOUNTAIN
by HAYOUN KWON
France, Taipei / 18’ / installation, virtual reality

ITO MEIKYU
by BORIS LABBÉ
France, Luxembourg / 15’ / virtual reality

STRANGEWAYS
by ADAM LIEBER, CHRIS BIANCHI
UK, South Africa, Malta / 30’ / world, virtual reality

FRAGILE HOME
by ONDŘEJ MORAVEC, VICTORIA LOPUKHINA
Czech Republic / 30’ / installation, mixed reality

IMPULSE: PLAYING WITH REALITY
by BARRY GENE MURPHY, MAY ABDALLA
UK, France / 35’ / installation, mixed reality

ŽAISTI GYVENIMĄ (PLAY LIFE)

by ZILVINAS NAUJOKAS, VILIUS PETRAUSKAS, MANTAS PRONCKUS, DONATAS ULVYDAS, ALGIS KRISCIUNAS, DARIUS ZICKUS
Lithuania / 26’ / virtual reality

RENCONTRES
by MATHIEU PRADAT
France, Taipei / 50’ / installation, virtual reality

A SIMPLE SILENCE
by CRAIG QUINTERO
Taipei / 12’ / virtual reality

PROJECT_Y: WORKING TITLE
by YUZO SUGANO, SHINGO YOSHIMURA, TOSHIKI SAKAMOTO, TARO HIRAI
Japan / 90’ / virtual reality

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: SILVER PHANTOM
by KENICHI SUZUKI
Japan, France, USA / 90’ / virtual reality

SYMBIOSIS/\DYSBIOSIS: SENTIENCE
by TOSCA TERÁN, BRENDAN LEHMAN, ANDREI GRAVELLE, SVEN STEFFENS
Canada, Germany, Chile / 90’ / installation, virtual reality, live performance

CHAMP DE BATAILLE
by FRANÇOIS VAUTIER
France, Belgium, Luxembourg / 21’ / virtual reality

ALL I KNOW ABOUT TEACHER LI
by ZHUZMO
USA / 20’ / virtual reality

 –

Out of Competition

(international selection of the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice International Film Festival)

Best of Experiences

TURBULENCE: JAMAIS VU
by BEN JOSEPH ANDREWS, EMMA ROBERTS
Australia / 10’ / installation, virtual reality

WHAT IF…? – AN IMMERSIVE STORY
by DAVE BUSHORE
USA / 50’ / mixed reality

40 DIAS SEM O SOL (40 DAYS WITHOUT THE SUN)
by JOAO FURIA
Brazil / 15’ / virtual reality

NIGHTMARA: EPISODE 3
by GIANPAOLO GONZALEZ
USA / 14’ / virtual reality

ASTRA
by ELIZA MCNITT
France, USA / 60’ / mixed reality

ADVENTURE
by CHARLOTTE MIKKELBORG, ELLIOT GRAVES
UK / 25’ / virtual reality

RIVEN
by RAND MILLER, RICHARD WENDE, HANNAH GAMIEL, ERIC ANDERSON, TONY FRYMAN
USA / 45’ / virtual reality

MUSEUM ALIVE IMMERSIVE WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
by BHAUMIK PATEL
UK / 10’/ mixed reality

TELOS I
by EMIL DAM SEIDEL, DOROTEA SAYKALY
Canada, Sweden, Denmark, UK / 23’/ installation

THE 7TH GUEST VR
by PAUL VAN DER MEER
The Netherlands / virtual reality

–

Best of Worlds

․·⁄/ COMPLICATION by Ende

CHROMATIC FREQUENCY by Axinovium

CONCRETE – PALE SANDS by May ~ and jerk．

ECCENTIC ROOMS by suzuki_i

ENDLESS RESIDENTS SUPER ULTRA DELUXE EDITION by Spencer Filson

EXOPLANET JOURNEY by Niko

FINISHING TOUCH – ART STUDIO ＆ GALLERY by Mixieǃ!

LIKE A CANVAS by haruki_haru

LIMINAL DREAMS˸ THE POOLROOMS by ∗*Lotus∗*

MAGIC AI-ART˸ DIMENSIONS by Niko∗*

MAGNETIZE by Juice…

MORMOVERSE˸ UNDER THE PILLOW by GeorgyMolodtsov

OVERVIEW EFFECT EXPERIENCE by THE SHUSHU

PHATTA by Sumeru

POLYRHYTHM by SkyeSage

SANCTUM by Muzz, ju.no

SMEW BRUSHǃ! by Smew

SNR Labs: Test Facility by A://DDOS

SUKU by durk＠work

VRC MUSEUM by Ectique

–

Biennale College Cinema – Immersive – Out of Competition

EARTHS TO COME
by ROSE BOND producer: MELANIE COOMBS
USA / 13’ / virtual reality
Developed during Biennale College Cinema Immersive, 8^th edition (2023/2024)

DUCHAMPIANA
by LILIAN HESS producer: SARAH ARNAUD, KATHRIN BRUNNER, OLIVER CZESLICK
France, Germany / 10’ / installation, virtual reality
Developed during Biennale College Cinema VR, 5^th edition (2020/2021)

GARDEN ALCHEMY
by MICHELLE KRANOT, URI KRANOT producer: URI KRANOT, PETER FISHER, SIMON LAJBOSCHITZ
Denmark / 45’ / installation, virtual reality
Developed during Biennale College Cinema VR, 7^th edition (2022/2023)

 CHUNG-NAN-PAN-TAO WEI-CHIH-MOU-CHU (SOMEWHERE UNKNOWN IN INDOCHINA)
by ASIO CHIHSIUNG LIU, FENG TING TSOU producer: FENG TING TSOU, ASIO CHIHSIUNG LIU
Taipei, Belgium, Canada, Vietnam, Cambodia / 38’ / virtual reality
Developed during Biennale College Cinema VR, 6^th edition (2021/2022)

BELOW DECK
by MARTINA MAHLKNECHT, MARTIN PRINOTH producer: MARTINA MAHLKNECHT, MARTIN PRINOTH
Germany, Italy / 23’ / installation, virtual reality
Developed during Biennale College Cinema VR, 7^th edition (2022/2023)

THE GOSSIPS’ CHRONICLES
by CORINNE MAZZOLI producer: MARTA BIANCHI
Italy / 30’/ installation, mixed reality
Produced with the grant from Biennale College Cinema Immersive, 8^th edition (2023/2024)

ECHOS OF ASH VALLEY
by SHU ZHU producer: SULTAN PIRZHAN, JONATHAN WARNER, ZEMO ZHENG
USA / 17’ / installation, virtual reality
Developed during Biennale College Cinema Immersive, 8^th edition (2023/2024)