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Following the strong performances at the Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals this year, Taiwanese works continue to make an impact at the 81st Venice Film Festival. Venice has selected seven outstanding Taiwanese works for its official competition this year. These include Stranger Eyes, a feature film co-produced by Singapore, Taiwan, France, and the USA, nominated for the Venezia 81 Competition. Additionally, Wishing on a Star, a documentary co-produced by Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, and Croatia, with participation from a Taiwanese production company, is nominated in the Orizzonti section. Five Taiwan-related immersive works have also been selected for the Venice Immersive Competition: Free Ur Head, A Simple Silence, The Guardians of Jade Mountain, Address Unknown: Fukushima Now, and Encounters. Winners will be announced on September 7th.

Venice Immersive has become a highly competitive and anticipated event worldwide. Of the 26 nominated works from 18 countries, five are from Taiwan. Taiwan Creative Content Agency...

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the lineup of projects for Venice Immersive, the Extended Reality (Xr) section of the event. The program, which will include 63 projects from 25 countries, takes place on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7.

There are 26 projects in Competition, including 19 world premieres and seven international premieres.

There are 30 projects playing Out of Competition, including the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice Film Festival; this section is divided into: Best of Experiences (10 projects), and Best of Worlds (20 projects), created by independent artists on the VRChat social platform, an ecosystem of virtual worlds presented in guided tours.

There are seven projects developed during the Biennale College Cinema – Immersive: one project produced thanks to the grant from this year’s eighth edition, six projects developed within the international workshop of the eighth, seventh, sixth and fifth editions.

The Venice International Film Festival 2024 lineup is slowly coming into view, with the Venice Immersive Xr – Extended Reality section now revealed.

The festival, which will take place from August 28 through September 7, includes 360° videos, virtual and mixed reality and Xr works of any length for the Venice Immersive program. Launched in 2017, the section represents one of the first competitions for works in Extended Reality in an A-list festival. The 81st annual festival’s Venice Immersive section is presented with support from VRChat.

The Venice Immersive program included 63 projects from 25 countries, with 26 of those projects being in competition. The festival also boasts seven 7 projects developed during the Biennale College Cinema – Immersive offering.

A trio prizes will be awarded to Venice Immersive projects from the jury. The prizes are: the Venice Immersive Grand Prize, the Venice Immersive Special Jury Prize, and Venice Immersive Achievement Prize.

The international Venice Immersive jury is preceded over by president Celine Daemen,...

As the Cannes Film Festival and the Marché du Film are both set to open on the 14th of May, Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) is making a big splash with films and projects it has supported selected in multiple sections. It will also be making its presence felt with several projects pitching at the market. Six films supported by Taicca co-production initiatives or investment will premiere at the festival. These are Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot in Cannes Premiere, The Shameless in Un Certain Regard, Locust in Critics Week, Mongrel in Directors' Fortnight, Colored in the Immersive Competition, and Missing Pictures: Naomi Kawase in the Immersive Selection. Further Taiwanese talent will be on show as Traversing the Mist by Tung-Yen Chou is also selected for the Immersive Competition; actor Eddie Peng is headlining Black Dog in Un Certain Regard; and actors Lee Kang-Sheng and Wu Ke-Xi feature in Blue Sun...

The Cannes Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its new strand dedicated to immersive works. Among the eight projects in competition are the French premiere of Evolver, which will feature Cate Blanchett in voiceover, and the European premiere of Maya: The Birth of a Superhero with Indira Varma and Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran as English voices. Meanwhile, the non-competitive works boast a stellar cast including Colin Farrell as the English voice in Gloomy Eyes, Jessica Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown, and Patti Smith in Spheres.

Earlier this month, the Cannes Film Festival and its Marché du Film had announced the launch of a new competition dedicated to immersive works. The statement revealed that the competition will feature immersive, collective, and interactive works that utilize virtual reality, augmented reality, and other cutting-edge technologies to transcend conventional storytelling and transport audiences to other worlds, and narratives.

Other projects in competition include En Amour,...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival lineup is expanding thanks to the newly unveiled Immersive competition.

The inaugural offering includes location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, projection mapping, and holographic works. Actors such as Colin Farrell (“Gloomy Eyes”), Olivia Cooke (“Emperor”), Jessica Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown, and Patti Smith (“Spheres”) lend their respective voices to the projects created with cutting-edge technology.

The festival will host eight projects as part of the Immersive Competition, ushering in a new era of storytelling while “challenging convention, embracing new technologies, and above all celebrating new artists as well as old,” per the official press statement.

Outside of the competition, six non-competitive works will be featured at the exhibition exploring the evolution of the medium and drawing parallels between virtual reality, virtual production, cinema, and collective storytelling.

The Best Immersive Work Award will be presented by the President of the Jury at the Closing Ceremony on...

Cannes Film Festival (May 15-24) has unveiled the eight titles for its inaugural immersive competition, including projects featuring Cate Blanchett, Millie Bobby Brown, Patti Smith, Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain.

The competition includes location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, as well as projection mapping and holographic works.

Evolver is voiced by Blanchett, and has previously played at Tribeca and Geneva International Film Festiva. It is helmed by Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin and Robin McNicholas of London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast. Dirty Films is also a production company, and Coco Francini, Blanchett, and Andrew Upton are executive producers on the virtual reality project,...

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the inaugural lineup for its Immersive Competition section, the first-ever selection of augmented and virtual reality works to screen at the austere French film fest.

The 8 competition titles and 6 out-of-competition screenings include works featuring such talents as Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, Millie Bobby Brown, and Tahar Rahim. The lineup highlights cutting-edge VR and Ar techniques and includes location-based virtual reality, mixed reality experiences, projection mapping, and holographic works.

Introducing the new immersive section, Cannes said it hoped to “spotlight the next generation of international artists who are redefining storytelling and inventing new narrative-driven experiences that move beyond the traditional two-dimensional cinema screen.” The section is being organized with support from the French national film board, the Cnc. The immersive works will be presented at an exhibition space in the Cannes Cineum complex on the outskirts of the city and at the campus of Cannes’s Georges Méliès film school.

The Cannes Film Festival has announced the selections for its Immersive lineup, including projects voiced by stars like Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain.

According to a press release, the Immersive competition includes “collective location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, and projection mapping and holographic works. These carefully selected immersive works showcase the cutting edge of this new era in storytelling, challenging convention, embracing new technologies, and above all celebrating new artists as well as old.”

The eight projects in competition include the French premiere of “Evolver,” voiced by Blanchett, and the European premiere of “Maya: The Birth of a Superhero,” which counts “Bridgerton” star Charithra Chandran among its voice cast.

The out-of-competition lineup comprises six projects, including “Emperor” with “House of the Dragon” star Olivia Cooke; “Gloomy Eyes,” the English version of which is voiced by Farrell; and Eliza McNitt’s “Spheres” with Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown and Patti Smith.

Venice works with VR platforms including Facebook-owned Oculus and Viveport, which do not allow nudity and sex, for example.

Venice VR Expanded co-creators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac have warned of freedom of expression issues threatening to stop daring and ground-breaking VR work being seen widely.

The Venice organisers need to work with the leading VR platforms, who are generally strong supporters of artists in the fast growing VR field, in order to distribute virtual-reality projects online. The hitch comes with what these platforms are allowing to be seen.

“They have a very strict moral code with very strictly defined family moral values,...

Venice works with VR platforms including Facebook-owned Oculus and Viveport, which do not allow nudity and sex, for example.

Venice VR Expanded co-creators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac have warned of a creeping censorship issue threatening to stop daring and ground-breaking VR work being seen widely.

The Venice organisers need to work with platforms including Facebook-owned Oculus and Viveport, which is owned by Taiwan’s Htc, in order to distribute virtual reality projects online. The hitch comes with what these platforms are allowing to be seen.

“They have a very strict moral code with very strictly defined family moral values,...

There is no doubting the mainstream appeal of dating apps across the world. For many, it is a much more convenient method of finding a partner, free from the conventions of bygone eras and, at times, a much more convenient way of meeting a likeminded individual than a bar somewhere in a town centre. For gay people, though, at times, such an application is so much more. “Looking For?” taps into all of this, dealing with everything from choosing the correct profile picture, right to whether typically heteronormative concepts such as marriage need to be pursued when one does eventually look for love, if that even exists.

Filmed over the course of four years (2012-2016), the 60-minute feature follows director Tung-yen Chou across Asia, America and Europe as he seeks to investigate how dating apps have shaped the gay community. Complete with around 60 interviewees, most of whom are friends or acquaintances of the director,...

The full programme for the first Queer East Film Festival is announced. The curated series of screenings across London, with accompanying panel events, will explore identity, religion, family, adulthood and politics through queer relationships on screen, specifically from East and Southeast Asia.

Many have seen the significant progress of Lgbtq + rights across the world, but progress in Asia has been mixed. The festival invites everyone in the UK to be part of the discussion and celebrate diverse identities, cultures, and heritages of Asian and Asian diasporic communities who’ve often been excluded from mainstream discourse.

The programme is a mix of classic films and new releases, exploring how culture, law, history, and social norms have affected and built the current Asian queer landscape over 50 years of cinema.

Twenty-nine films, including 6 UK Premieres and 2 London Premieres, from 13 countries across Asia will be screened in cinemas across the capital to foster and...