Perhaps due to last year’s event being reduced for reasons we would rather forget, this year it feels like the VR pavilion is pulling out all the stops.
Guy Daleiden, head of the film fund and Ainhea Achutegui, director of Neimënster in a press conference on 23 February outlined what they have in store for audiences and the efforts undergone to bring this unique experience.
The danger with VR is that the technology, as impressive as it is, often supersedes the content and becomes a gimmick and an end in itself. This is clearly not going to be the case at the 10 day event, which will showcase an array of specially adapted films between 3 and 13 March.
Discussing the selection of films and their artistic merit, Guy Daleiden explained that “they put forward a humanist message, exploring humanity and are a vehicle for poetic messages focusing on humanism rather than them focusing on the technology.”
The award-winning VR works, some of which have been shown at the world’s most prestigious festivals including the Venice Biennale and Tribeca Film Festival, will be judged by three international XR experts who will award a €4,000 prize to the winning entry.
What’s more, the virtual reality pavilion is accessible free of charge.
Two initiatives
The Luxembourg Film Fund is to showcase two different formats at the pavilion. A specially equipped VR cinema offering a 360 ° experience where viewers will be seated and transported to a virtual world by the technology and specially designed installations within Neimënster’s atmospheric vaulted rooms.
The innovative Canadian company explained that the bespoke installations have been produced on the back of conversations with the film makers to create the ultimate immersive experience for their works; blending reality with virtual reality.
For instance, the installation for feature film End of Night, invites participants to sit in a boat while watching the film where the protagonist is rowing from Nazi occupied Denmark to Sweden recounting a tale of escape and guilt. Whilst The Book of Distance a piece delving into the life of a Japanese man who moves to Canada only to be the victim of state sanctioned racism features a tatami for the public to explore the piece on.
From March 14, people will be able to rent VR headsets for €20 for 2 to 3 days allowing them to watch from the comfort of their home all the works of VR Cinema presented at the Pavilion.
A new frontier for the film industry
Daleiden explained the Luxembourg Film Funds’ role in showcasing and nurturing Luxembourg film talent while also talking about how the 120 year old film industry is changing the way it showcases productions with new emerging technologies.
“We have to invest in production and stimulate our industry to get them to produce and to direct new visual content. We then had the task to help them get the finances together through the film fund but, also, we have the obligation to show the content, to showcase it in the right environment… It’s a mission of the film fund as well to make sure the productions can be shown somewhere else... But we said that’s not enough. If you want to attract the public, to show them what’s going on in this area, you need to attract international productions as well, to ensure the public interacts in everything. We profit from the fact we have a festival – we show the big international experiences and we include our Luxembourg experiences, so we offer a full programme to the local public.”
More information and the full list of films can be found