How the 360 Film Festival Hopes to Shine Spotlight on Immersive Content
It’s no secret that immersive content has undergone a seismic shift over the past couple of years. The possibilities afforded by the latest VR, AR, and MR technologies mean that immersive digital worlds are being adopted and utilized across almost every industry.
Virtual experiences that were once the sole preserve of gamers are now available to everyone from architects, to engineers, doctors, and artists, to name but a few. According to some estimates, immersive content is headed towards becoming a $160 billion global market by 2021.
In response to growing levels of interest, this year’s 360 Film Festival in Paris is hoping to shine a spotlight on immersive content.
In this post, we’ll look at how this year’s Festival plans to focus on a variety of immersive formats including VR/360, AR, and large formats, and how it hopes to celebrate the energy of creators across these fields.
What is the 360 Film Festival?
Now in its fourth year, the 360 Film Festival is an annual event that aims to highlight interactive and immersive content. This year, the Festival will run from November 5-6 and will be hosted at the SATIS Screen4All Film Festival in Paris, France. The Festival is aiming to put interactive content front and center in its awards ceremony with a variety of innovative award categories.
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Last year’s 360 Film Festival attracted 135 submissions from creators in 22 countries and these were whittled down to just 85 for the final competition. A panel of judges led by French film director and producer Jan Kounen awarded Angel Manuel Soto’s Dinner Party with the Festival’s Grand Prize. The Festival drew positive feedback from leading industry professionals who sat on the jury including Samantha Donovan (co-founder, PrismaXR Lab) and Christophe Lacroix (co-founder and senior vice president of Ymagis). Donovan praised the Festival’s focus on VR, AR, and large formats while Lacroix reported that it was his first experience of being on jury duty when he felt he could “make a difference”.
This year’s Sundance Film Festival (New Frontier), Atlanta Film Festival and the Cannes XR Marche du Film have already celebrated creators across a range of immersive digital formats. But the 360 Film Festival is aiming to celebrate the technical aspects of filmmaking that other film festivals overlook. In addition to three Grand Prizes for VR, AR, large formats and best screenplay, this year’s 360 Film Festival will offer prizes for the best interactivity/integration, best immersion, best visuals, best sound design, and best animation across all categories.
Dedicated to “innovation at the service of creation”
This year’s 360 Film Festival will embody the vision of SATIS-Screen4All: “innovation at the service of creation”. The Festival’s team will select around thirty programs and divide them into two official selections; one for ‘in competition’ and one from ‘out of competition’. This will help highlight the diversity of creation in immersive formats. The ‘in competition’ submissions will content for coveted awards such as the Grand Prizes, while the ‘out of competition’ selections will draw attention to content with a strong technical or artistic dimension that deserves special praise.
- Best Screenplay
- Best Interactivity/integration
- Best Immersion
- Best Visuals
- Best Sound Design
- Best Animation
The 360 Film Festival opened its call for submissions on June 11 and is clearly hoping to invite a wide selection of innovative programs. To ensure that the focus remains squarely on immersive content, a number of technical prizes will be awarded. Besides Grand Prizes for VR, AR, and Large Format content, the Festival will also offer the following categories:
The 360 Film Festival will be hosted at the SATIS-Screen4All on November 5 during an evening event. Winners will be awarded prizes by a jury of high-profile experts from the media and entertainment industry. The Festival is sure to draw attention to technical aspects of VR, AR and large format filmmaking that don’t always receive attention from other film festivals and help shine a spotlight on immersive content.
Follow SATIS on social networks:
Facebook: Satisexpo / Screen4All
Twitter: @satisexpo / @Screen4allforum
LinkedIn: Satis Expo and Screen4all groups
