VR film Homestay wins BC Spotlight Audience Award at the inaugural VIFF Immersed Exhibition
The VIFF Immersed Exhibition, presented by Samsung VR Video, featured the immersive content industry’s most compelling international and local creators. The sold-out public exhibition featured 15 virtual reality (VR) experiences, including three world premieres.
VR film Homestay, by Paisley Smith, Matthew Borrett, the National Film Board and Jam3, celebrated its Canadian premiere and won the BC Spotlight Audience Award, presented by Creative BC.
From September 29 to October 2, VIFF Immersed, curated by StoryTech Immersive, focused on the best of immersive storytelling by showcasing leading VR, AR and MR creators, platforms and technologies and exploring the current state of this burgeoning industry. The multi-day event launched with a special performance from Neweb Lab’s Maya Kodes, the world’s first interactive holographic pop star.
“VIFF has celebrated excellence in screen-based storytelling since 1982 and in 2018 inaugurated a new initiative to engage both audiences and creators by diving into the art and science of narrative on Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality platforms,” said Jacqueline Dupuis, VIFF Executive Director. “VIFF Immersed is a place for excellence in narrative content that is available for distribution to audiences across multiple immersive platforms. It is also the forum for creators, buyers, distributors and technologies meet, learn, experience and collaborate to raise the bar for narrative content and grow the industry.”
On September 29, New Realities in Storytelling featured 20 VR thought leaders and filmmakers discussing market opportunities in sold-out executive roundtables, where they answered audience questions on how to secure financing, pitch to venture capitalists and access exclusive technologies for productions. Audiences also learned from case studies of history-making content creation; these were presented by speakers such as Joel Breton, general manager of HTC’s VIVE Studios, which produced 7 Miracles, the world’s first feature-length cinematic VR experience. 7 Miracles won the Spirit of Raindance: VR Film of The Festival at the Raindance Film Festival in London on October 6, 2018.
On September 30, BC Immersed provided inspiration and education to creators, with 12 workshops dedicated to the art and science of production. Topics included volumetric filmmaking, camera selection and Augmented Reality development. Speaker James George, CEO of DepthKit and Scatter, turned the entire audience into holograms using volumetric video capture. George went on to win an Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary award for his work on Zero Days at the 39th News and Documentary Emmy® Awards on October 1, 2018.
VIFF Immersed also launched the inaugural BC Tech Crawl where an international delegation of distributors, producers, tech companies and key VIP’s guests, had an opportunity to experience firsthand the rich creative-tech ecosystem here in BC. Hosts included TELUS, Microsoft, DigiBC, Vancouver Film School and The Cube. Delegates enjoyed immersive projects including the Hololens Transformation Mask and met up with a contingent of VR, AR and MR creators visiting from the Gyeonggi Province of South Korea. The Tech Crawl gave attendees the opportunity to network with each other and seek out business opportunities with BC-based companies
About VIFF Immersed The Vancouver International Film Festival extends its mission of celebrating excellence in screen-based storytelling with the launch of VIFF Immersed. Dedicated to exceptional narrative storytelling in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, VIFF Immersed features a two-day conference program where art, technology and business will intersect. Plus, a public exhibition offers fans firsthand engagement with immersive experiences that are re-imagining storytelling.
About VIFF | viff.org Founded in 1982, the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a charitable not-for-profit arts and cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and the year-round programming of the Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Centre. The Society’s mission is to celebrate excellence, promote diversity and foster discovery and innovation in the field of screen-based storytelling. Among the largest film festivals in North America in terms of screenings and attendance, VIFF presents over 350 films and events, plays host to over 400 industry professionals from around the globe and boasts the largest Canadian film program in the world. For its 37th year, VIFF welcomes the world to Vancouver from September 27 – October 12, 2018.
