Virtual Reality to get a big push at Venice Film Festival 2017

Film festivals around the world are now exploring Virtual Reality as a new form of entertainment, a novel idea of storytelling.While Cannes 2017 had Alejandro G. Inarritu’s immigration-themed installation “Carne y Arena”, the soon to start Venice Film Festival will have aVR competition, a dedicated workshop, and a market component.

Bringing a change in how directors showcase their work, VR is nowadays being experimented with by a lot of new-age filmmakers.

Exploring this craze, many other film festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto,Geneva Intl. Film Festival Tous Ecrans, Dubai Fest are pushing limits to encourage usage of newer technology while filmmaking.

At the Venice Film Festival which is scheduled to kickstart from August 30, theLidois launching a 22-title competitive strand dedicated to works made for virtual reality-viewing, the first-ever competition for VR works launched by a major film event.

The Lido orVenice Lido (Lido di Venezia), is an 11-kilometre (7-mile) long sandbar in Venice in northern Italy and is the venue for the prestigious film festival every year.

The world’s oldest film festival has also launched Biennale College Cinema Virtual Reality, as part of their Biennale College lab, which guides micro-budget movies from development through distribution.

TheVenice gap financing market will also be featuring selected VR pieces to be pitched to international financiers, for the second time consecutively.

The VR push at Venice Film Festival comes fromMichel Reilhac who is on the Biennale College staff. He started advocating for VR three years ago with Venice Biennale president Paolo Baratta and its artistic director, Alberto Barbera.

In a statement to Variety, he said, "I really wanted to convince them that they had to look at VR and see it as a new option to tell stories and a potentially new art form."

He added that since “things were moving very very fast with VR and we needed to be the first ones to do something significant", he made a serious pitch for Venice’s first VR foray.

There are in total 22 VR works competing for prizes at the film festival. The list includes “La Camera Insabbiata,” co-directed by Laurie Anderson and Huang Hsin-Chien which in its presentationconsistsof huge spaces with walls made of chalk boards filled with text that can be explored by flying or gliding; “Greenland Melting” by U.S. VR pioneer Nonny de la Pena in which the viewer is on a Greenland glacier with two scientists who talk about the melting icecaps; andEugene YK Chung’s room- scale VR animation called “Arden’s Wake,” about a little girl living on the water with her father.

The entire list of movies competing in the section is below:

• Melita,Director: Nicolas Alcala
• La Camera Insabbiata, Directors: Laurie Anderson, Huang Hsin-Chien
• The Last Goodbye,Director: Gabo Arora
• My Name Is Peter Stillman,Directors: Lysander Ashton, Leo Warner
• Alice, The Virtual Reality Play,Director: Mathias Chelebourg
• Arden’s Wake (Expanded),Director: Eugene YK Chung
• Greenland Melting, Director: Nonny De La Pena
• Bloodless,Director: Gina Kim
• Nothing Happens,Directors: Uri Kranot, Michelle Kranot
• The Dream Collector,Director: Mi Li
• Snatch VR Heist Experience,Directors: Rafael Pavon, Nicolas Alcala
• Nefertitti, Directors: Richard Mills, Kim-Leigh Pontin
• Proxima, Director: ManuelPradat
• In The Pictures,Director: Qing Shao
• Dispatch,Director: Edward Robles
• The Argos File,Director: Josema Roig
• Gomorra VR – We Own The Streets,Director: Enrico Rosati
• Draw Me Close, Chapters 1-2,Director: Jordan Tannahill
• The Deserted,Director: Tsai Ming-Liang
• I Saw The Future,Director: Francois Vautier
• Separate Silences,Director: David Wedel
• Free Whale,Director: ZhangPeibin

(WION)