During the Venice Film Festival, the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio will be hosting the Venice VR competition dedicated to immersive content for the third consecutive year. France will be represented by five films, with the company Atlas V achieving a historic hat-trick with three works presented.
Renowned as the most important event devoted to virtual reality in Europe, the Venice Film Festival (August 28—September 7) is gearing up to hold the third edition of Venice VR, with no less than five French immersive works selected at the event. Once again this year, Diversion cinema will be providing its technical know-how for the screenings.
In this competition invariably dominated by productions from the USA, France continues to assert its singularity, and this year stands out as the fourth most highly-represented national industry after the United Kingdom and Taiwan, a country with whom there is currently a high potential for coproduction opportunities thanks in particular to the Franco-Taiwanese Coproduction Residency scheme that was officially launched at the recent NewImages Festival in Paris.
French films account for one half of the linear pieces in the Official Competition. Among these works we can highlight the remarkable achievement of the up-and-coming Parisian outfit Atlas V, which has produced three of the works presented in competition. Last year, two French works won awards at the event, with Atlas V picking up the Best Film honors for Spheres.
It is perhaps surprising that there are no French productions in the interactive section of the event this year, considering that these works have attracted considerable acclaim in previous years. However, this reflects the current preoccupation in the industry with ensuring the continuity of these installations by maintaining a level of profitability.
French films in the Venice VR lineup
Venice VR – Linear Competition
- Ex Anima Experience by Pierre Zandrowicz & Bartabas
- BattleScar by Martin Allais & Nico Casavecchia (Chapters 1, 2, 3), see trailer below
- Gloomy Eyes by Jorge Tereso & Fernando Maldonado (Chapter 2)
Venice VR – Best Of
All of these works have benefited from support from the CNC, and three of them—A Fisherman's Tale and the first chapters of BattleScar and Gloomy Eyes—have already participated in the French Immersion program. French productions will also be in the spotlight on August 29: as part of a partnership with the SACD-Beaumarchais established for the Orange XR Grant, UniFrance will host a cocktail reception to celebrate the opening of Venice VR. At this event, the findings will be announced of the second study on the international sale of French VR works in 2018.
The complete program can be found here
