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2025 Venice Immersive Selection and Competition Unveils 69
projects from 27 countries
Rick W
/ Categories: Film Score News

2025 Venice Immersive Selection and Competition Unveils 69 projects from 27 countries

Venice Immersive Selection and Competition announced

Members of the International Jury Include: Eliza McNitt (President), Gwenael François, Boris Labbé

The selection of projects for Venice Immersive, the XR - Extended Reality section of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (27th August – 6th September 2025) of La Biennale di Venezia, is now complete. Launched in 2017, the section represents the first competition and official selection for works in Extended Reality in an A-list festival. The official programme will take place on the Venice Immersive Island (island of Lazzaretto Vecchio), just a three-minute vaporetto ride from the Lido di Venezia, on the following dates:

 

  •    26th August (afternoon): press preview

  •    27th August– 6th September: open to all accredited visitors

     

Venice Immersive is entirely dedicated to the immersive artsand media and includes all forms of creative XR expression: immersive videos, virtual and mixed reality, virtual worlds and immersive installations. The Venice Immersive sectionof the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will be held with the support of VR Chat.

 

Venice Immersive will present 69 projects from 27 countries:

 

30 projects in Competition, representing a selectionof 21 world premieres and 9 international premieres of the world’s best immersive works;

 

34 projects Out of Competition, an international selection of the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice International Film Festival; this section is divided into:

 

o  Best of Experiences11 projects

 

o  Best of Worlds23 projects, created by independent artists from all over the world on the VR Chat social platform, an ecosystem of virtual worlds presented in guided tours;

 

·       5 projects developed during the Biennale College Cinema – Immersive training program: project produced thanks to the grant from this year’s ninth edition, 4 projects developed withinthe past editions of the international workshop.

 

The Venice International Film Festival was one of the first film festivals in the world to show an interest in Virtual Reality. The development of a VR Theatre in 2016 sparked enormous interest among the participants of the Venice Production Bridge. Starting in 2017, La Biennale di Venezialaunched the first competition for works in Virtual Reality in an A-list festival, which was held for three editions, through 2019, on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio on the Lido, judged by an International Jury. The online accessibility of Venice VR Expanded over two editions (2020 and 2021) represented a new commitment and a new challenge to guarantee that the Venice International Film Festival would continue to offer the experience of this new art form, even in times of required social distancing. In 2022 the section, renamed Venice Immersive, returned in person to the island. Since the very first years, the section has been recognised as a uniqueevent in the field and the most significant annual exhibitionof immersive arts and media.

 

Accredited visitors to the Venice Film Festival will have access to all the titles in the line-up. There is also a dedicated Venice Immersive Accreditation reserved to people over 18 years of age that grants access to the projects of the section and is available in three formats:

 

2-DAYS Venice Immersive Accreditation (€ 40): valid for 2 days

 

5-DAYS Venice Immersive Accreditation (€ 60): valid for 5 days

 

11-DAYS Venice Immersive Accreditation (€100): valid from 27th August to 6th September.

 

Information regarding accreditation for Venice Immersive is available on our website (labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-immersive-accreditation).

 

The members of the international Jury of Venice Immersive are:

 

Eliza McNitt - president: (USA) McNitt is a writer and director. A pioneer of fusing storytelling and emerging technology, she is an Emmy Awards Finalist and recipient of the Best VR Award (Immersive Story) at Venice International Film Festival. From astronauts to astrophysics, McNitt explores the cosmic collision of science and art. She is the creator of Spheres, a VR journey through the hidden songs of the universe, executive produced by Darren Aronofsky and starring Millie Bobby Brown, Jessica Chastain, and Patti Smith. Spheres made history as the first VR acquisition out of Sundance. Her latest short film, Ancestra, is a groundbreaking collaboration with Darren Aronofsky’s newest venture Primordial Soup and Google DeepMind — combining live-action and generative AI to tell a story of an expectant mother who draws on the strength of all that came before — past matriarchs to dying stars — to transform her love into a cosmic force to save her daughter’s life. McNitt’s work has appeared at Sundance, SXSW, AFI Fest, Cannes, CPH: DOX, Tribeca, Telluride, and Venice.

 

Gwenael François: (France/Luxembourg) François is a director and producer, co-founder of Skill Lab in Luxembourg. He directed film shorts and story driven music videos that blends creativity and technology. Embracing VR, he directed interactive experiences including Errances, a VR trip aboard afuturistic train with synthwave electronic music (Fivars 2023, Siggraph 2024, Bifan 2024) and Oto'sPlanet an interactive spatial tale that is touring major festivals (Venice Immersive Special Jury Price 2024, Geneva 2024, Webby Awards 2025, Canadian Screen Awards2025). He’s now developing a new XR experience Tachychronia that deals with the perception of time and the search for love. Collaborating all over the world, he develops his creativity through innovation.

 

Boris Labbé: (France) Trained at the École supérieure d'art de Tarbes and the École de cinéma d'animation d'Angoulême, the work of Boris Labbé (1987, FR) quickly made its way around the world, whether at contemporary art exhibitions, international film festivals or audiovisual concerts. His latest short film La Chute was selected for the Special Screening at the Critics' Week of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. In 2020 he collaborated with the choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and signed the video scenography of the show Swan Lake. His films and video installations have earned him some seventy awards and distinctions around the world, including the Golden Nica Animation at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz and the Grand Prix at the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo. Between 2023 and 2024, he developed anddirected two landmark projects: ItoMeikyū, his first virtual reality project (produced by Sacrebleu Productions and Les Films Fauves) and Glass House, a video scenography in collaboration with composer Lucas Fagin (produced by the Ensemble Cairn). In 2024 Ito Meikyū was awarded the Venice Immersive Grand Prize at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.

 

The 2025 Venice Immersive Jury will award the following prizes:

 

Venice Immersive Grand Prize

 

Venice Immersive Special Jury Prize

 

Venice ImmersiveAchievement Prize

 

 

VENICE IMMERSIVE

 

In Competition

 

 

LA MAGIE OPÉRA

by JONATHAN ASTRUC

France / 25’ / installation, virtual reality

 

1968

by ROSE BOND

USA / 9’ / installation, virtual reality

 

LA TRISTE HISTOIRE DE LA PETITE SOURIS QUI VOULAIT ABSOLUMENT DEVENIR QUEL QU’UN (THE SAD STORY OF THE LITTLE MOUSE WHO WANTED TO BECOME SOMEBODY)

by NICOLAS BOURNIQUEL

France, Germany, Belgium / 30’ / virtual reality

 

CREATION OF THE WORLDS

by KRISTINA BUOŽYTĖ, VITALIJUS ŽUKAS

Lithuania / 28’ / virtual reality

 

FACE JUMPING

by DANNY CANNIZZARO, SAMANTHA GORMAN

USA / 25’ / virtual reality

 

JEONYEOK 8SI WA GOYANGI (8PM AND THE CAT)

by MINHYUK CHE

South Korea / 14’ / virtual reality

 

THE CLOUDS ARE TWO THOUSAND METERS UP

by SINGING CHEN

Taipei, Germany / 50’ / installation, virtual reality

 

DARK ROOMS

by MADS DAMSBO, ANNE SOFIE STEEN SVERDRUP

Denmark, Germany, Taipei / 35’ / installation, virtual reality

 

THE GREAT ORATOR

by DANIEL ERNST

The Netherlands / 40’ / virtual reality

 

HEARTBEAT – SON CŒUR A TROUVÉ SA CADENCE DANS LE SILENCE DES RENCONTRES

by FANNY FORTAGE

France / 10’ / immersive installation

 

THE BIG CUBE

by MENGHUI HUANG

Finland, Belgium, China, Portugal / 7’ / virtual reality

 

MIRAGE

by NAIMA KARIM, ALEENA HANIF

Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina / 8’/ virtual reality, haptics

 

REFLECTIONS OF LITTLE RED DOT

by CHLOÉ LEE

Germany, USA / 40’ / installation, mixed reality

 

L'OMBRE (THE SHADOW)

by BLANCA LI, EDITH CANAT DE CHIZY

France, Taipei / 60’ / installation, mixed reality, live performance

 

ASTEROID

by DOUG LIMAN

USA, Canada / 30’ / installation, virtual reality

 

THE TIME BEFORE

by LEO METCALF, MICHAEL GOLEMBEWSKI

UK / 15’ / virtual reality

 

DANSE DANSE DANSE – MATISSE (DANCE DANCE DANCE – MATISSE)

by AGNÈS MOLIA, GORDON

France / 10’ / virtual reality       

 

LESS THAN 5GR OF SAFFRON

by NÉGAR MOTEVALYMEIDANSHAH

France / 7’ / virtual reality

 

EMPATHY CREATURES

by MÉLODIE MOUSSET

Switzerland / 10’ / installation, virtual reality

 

LA FILLE QUI EXPLOSE VR (THE EXPLODING GIRL VR)

by CAROLINE POGGI, JONATHAN VINEL

France / 20’ / virtual reality

 

BLUR

by CRAIG QUINTERO, PHOEBE GREENBERG

Canada, Taipei / 50’ / installation, virtual reality, live performance

 

BLACK CATS & CHEQUERED FLAGS

by ELISABETTA ROTOLO, SIOBHAN MCDONNELL

Italy / 20’ / installation, mixed reality, virtual reality

 

EDDIE AND I

by MAYA SHEKEL

Israel, Germany, France / 25’ / virtual reality

 

COLLECTIVE BODY

by SARAH SILVERBLATT-BUSER

France, USA / 20’ / installation, virtual reality

 

ALIEN PERSPECTIVE

by JUNG AH SUH, CRISTINA RAMBALDI

USA, Italy / 15’ / installation, virtual reality

 

THE GREAT ESCAPE

by JOREN VANDENBROUCKE

Belgium, Luxembourg / 20’ / virtual reality

 

A LONG GOODBYE

by KATE VOET, VICTOR MAES

Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands / 35’ / installation,virtual reality

 

IF YOU SEE A CAT

by ATSUSHI WADA

Japan / 37’ / virtual reality

 

MULAN2125

by MO HUANG

China / 56’ / virtual reality

 

SENSE OF NOWHERE

by HSIN-HSUAN YEH

Taipei, Finland, Belgium, Portugal, France / 30’ /virtual reality

 

 

Out of Competition

 

(international selection of the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice International Film Festival)

 

 Best of Experiences

 

WALL TOWN WONDERS

by IVES AGEMANS

Belgium / 30’ / mixed reality

 

ONE TRUE PATH, PART 1

By BALTHAZAR AUXIETRE

France/ 90’ / virtual reality

 

SUBMERGED

by EDWARD BERGER FOR APPLE

USA/ 17’ / immersive film

 

GHOST TOWN

by FIREPROOF GAMES

UK / 300’ / virtual reality

 

ADVENTURE: ICE DIVE

by CHARLOTTE MIKKELBORG FOR APPLE AND ATLANTIC STUDIOS

USA, Iceland / 15’ / immersive film

 

ANCESTORS

by STEYE HALLEMA

The Netherlands / 70’ / immersive installation

 

LILI

by NAVID KHONSARI, VASSILIKI KHONSARI

USA, UK, France / 30’ / immersive installation

 

ON THE OTHER EARTH

by WAYNE MCGREGOR

UK / 50’ / immersive installation, mixed reality

 

THE MIDNIGHT WALK

by OLOV REDMALM, KLAUS LYNGELED

Sweden, Brazil, India / 360’ / virtual reality

 

D-DAY: THE CAMERA SOLDIER

by CHLOÉ ROCHEREUIL

France, USA / 22’ / virtual reality

 

CONSTANTINOPOLIAD

by SISTER SYLVESTER, NADAH EL SHAZLY

UK, Greece / 55’ / immersive installation

 

 

Best of Worlds

 

NATURA’S QUEENDOM by Anders Fray, Starheart

 

CYBERLOVE | A7 by Artsy Glitch

 

UNCANNY LOUNGE by Christopher Lane Davis, RickTreweek

 

RITUAL by DrMorro

 

THE COLONY -FLAT 804 by Glory Nya

 

EXHIBITION ⁄BACK SEEING by haruki_haru

 

WHAT IS VIRTUAL ART – VOLUME 1 by Jessien

 

THE REALITY OFHOPE by JoeHunting

 

NEURON by Juice...

 

YORUTOUGE by mikkabouzu / Kikuo

 

FLAT EARTH by Niko Lang

 

EXPERIENCE by NOOTAU

 

POWDERGAME by Pema Malling

 

LIGHT AQUARIUM by phi16

 

BREAK 15˸ ARCANUM by PK / rekluma

 

VENT. by Premium²

 

FZMZ POINTZERO by ReeeznD

 

SCALE JOURNEY by S_Asagiri

 

SHINONOMEBALLOON - by sakanaplus

 

DRACULA’S CASTLE by Tanner White

 

MIRAGE by TOKYO WAIYOZ

 

NEOWORLDS by Widget365

 

FLASHINGWARNING byxlxxl

 

 

Biennale College Cinema – Immersive – Out of Competition

 

 

RI-LANCIA LUIGI BROGLIO (RE-LAUNCHING LUIGI BROGLIO)

by VINCENZO CAVALLO

Italy / 33’ / installation, virtual reality

Supported by the grant BCC Immersive 9th edition (2024/2025)

 

OUT OF NOWHERE

by KRIS HOFMANN, ANDREAS WUTHE

Austria, Germany / 10’ / virtual reality

 

HAPPY SHADOW

by PEI-YING LIN, TING-RUEI SU

Taipei / 25’ / installation, virtual reality

 

MNEMOSYNE

by WUER

Japan, China / 35’ / installation, virtual reality

 

FIRST VIRTUALSUIT

by KAZUKI YUHARA

Japan / 35’ / installation, virtual reality

 

 

VENICE PRODUCTION BRIDGE – VENICE IMMERSIVE MARKET

 

The 4th edition of the Venice Immersive Market (28th August – 3rd September), a part of the Venice Production Bridge, will take place on the Venice Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio).

 

The Venice Immersive Market is gathering all the Venice Production Bridge Immersive activities during the Venice International Film Festival. These activities include: the presentation of immersive projects of both the Venice Gap-Financing Market and the Biennale College Cinema Immersive through 1-to-1 meetings; panels and networking events dedicated to immersive topics; an Exhibition Area for Institutions, public and private funds, the manufacturers, the VR production, distribution and sales companies, public and private funds supporting VR/XR/AR, VFX and post-production companies that are connected to Immersive content.

 

The Venice Immersive Island will also host an array of social events, including Venice Production Bridge Panels and Cocktails. It will also feature international booths, allowing attendees to personally experience titles and projects, meet with representatives of supporting firms, and engage with their various services.

 

In the Spazio Incontri Immersivo there will be, from 28th August to 3rd September, panel discussions and activities dedicated to the world of XR –Extended Reality.

 

In 2025 the VPB Focuses will be the United Kingdom, supported by British Film Institute; Chile, supported by Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio, Gobierno de Chile; and Morocco, supported by Centre Cinématographique Marocain.

 

The Island will also be the place where teams (producer and creator) of the Immersive projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market will gather (29th August – 31stAugust):

 

 

14 IMMERSIVE PROJECTS:

 

14 Immersive projects (11 from Europe and 3 from around the world), including fiction, documentary, animation and other interactive installation-based experiences, including 3 projects coming from the VPB Focus on the United Kingdom. All projects have secured 30% of their budget and have this financing in place. These 14 projects will deliver a live pitch at the Spazio Incontri Immersivo on the morning of the 29thAugust.

 

10 BIENNALE COLLEGE CINEMA - IMMERSIVE PROJECTS:

 

10 projects, that have been developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema Immersive, ninth edition, and that have reached different stages of development, pre-production and post-production.The full list of the selected projects of the Venice Gap-Financing Market isavailable on our website.

 

(veniceproductionbridge.org/news/venice-gap-financing-market-2025-selected-projects)

 

Registered vdelegates with Industry Gold or Trade accreditations will be entitled to request meetings with the selected projects through our website (veniceproductionbridge.org) in the dedicated area to the VGFM.

 

The Venice Immersive Market will be the place where institutions, professionals, production, post-production and distribution companies, public and private funds linked to the Immersive world will convene.

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