– From 2 to 12 September, the jury comprising Paul Raphaël, Négar Motevalymeidanshah and Kate Voet will assess projects from 26 countries
Nevatars by Andy Serkis and Josh Youssef
The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the selection of works for Venice Immersive, which will run from 2 to 12 September on Venice Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio island), just a few minutes from Venice’s Lido. This year will see the festival’s XR – Extended Reality strand celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Venice Immersive is entirely dedicated to immersive media and includes all XR – Extended Reality forms of creative expression: immersive video, virtual and mixed reality, virtual worlds and immersive installations. Venice Immersive is supported by VRChat.
Venice Immersive will present 68 projects from 26 countries: 30 titles in Competition, including 22 world premieres and 8 international premieres of the finest immersive works from around the globe; and 35 Out of Competition titles, chosen from among the best projects which have been released or showcased at other events since last year’s festival. This section is divided into Best of Experiences, with 9 projects; Best of Worlds, with 26 projects created by independent artists from around the world on the VRChat platform, an ecosystem of virtual worlds presented through guided immersive tours; 3 projects developed through Biennale College Cinema – Immersive: 1 project produced thanks to the grant for the section’s tenth edition, and 2 projects developed within previous iterations of the international workshop.
The international Jury is chaired by Paul Raphaël, alongside Négar Motevalymeidanshah and Kate Voet. A Canadian and two-time Emmy winner, Paul Raphaël is the co-founder of Felix & Paul Studios, who are known for pioneering new forms of immersive storytelling. He contributed to developing capture technologies for Strangers with Patrick Watson, which is regarded as the first cinematic virtual-reality experience. Since then, he has co-directed and shaped the creative visions of more than 40 acclaimed immersive projects. Négar is an Iranian director, animator and visual artist working across animation, immersive media and illustration, who won the Venice Immersive Special Jury Prize for Less Than 5gr of Saffron in 2025. Voet, meanwhile, is a Belgian director and screenwriter who gained international recognition for A Long Goodbye, which she wrote and directed with Victor Maes, who also won the Venice Immersive Achievement Award in 2025.
Lastly, the fifth edition of the Venice Immersive Market (running 3 to 9 September), which is organised within Venice Production Bridge, will also take place on Venice Immersive Island. Its activities include presenting immersive projects from the Venice Gap-Financing Market and from Biennale College Cinema Immersive by way of one-to-one meetings; presentations and networking events devoted to specialised topics; and an exhibition area for institutions, public and private funds sponsoring VR/XR/AR projects, producers, and production, distribution, sales, VFX and post-production companies involved with immersive content.
The Island will also be the place to meet the teams (producers and creators) behind the Immersive projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market, running 4 to 6 September (the full list of selected projects is available here).
The selection is as follows:
Venice Immersive – In Competition
Raj’in (We Shall Return) – Faiz Abu Rmeleh, Keren Manor (Germany/Palestine) (virtual reality)
Ulrica – Hongbo Cai (United States/Mexico/Federated States of Micronesia) (immersive installation)
Shifting Connections – Tung-Yen Chou (Taipei) (mixed reality, installation)
Nothing to See Here – Celine Daemen (Netherlands) (installation)
Honeyboys – Tibor de Jong (Netherlands/Belgium) (virtual reality)
Everest: The First Ascent – Jean Dellac, Benjamin Auriche (France) (installation, virtual reality)
Nel Blu – FINS (United States) (virtual reality)
Empire at Sea – Peter Flaherty (United States) (installation, mixed reality)
Solwata – Felix Gaedtke, Gayatri Parameswaran (United States/Germany/Solomon Islands) (installation, mixed reality)
Galapagos: The Last Eden – Anthony Geffen (United Kingdom) (smart glasses, installation)
Outrenoir – Gordon (France) (virtual reality)
Ôl (Haunts) – Lucy Hammond, Tomos Chetwode-Barton (United Kingdom) (virtual reality)
Tomori – Misa Haru (Japan) (mixed reality, installation)
Back to the Experience – Jessien Huang (China) (virtual reality)
Amsterdam 1652: The Hands of the City – Nienke Huitenga-Broeren (Netherlands/France) (virtual reality, installation)
Sunset Motel – Gilles Jobin (Switzerland/France) (virtual reality)
Anokhya: The Origin – Anand Kishore (India) (virtual reality)
Finding Frida – Hilde K. Kjøs (Norway/Netherlands) (virtual reality, installation)
Out of the Ashes – Rory Mitchell, Nonny de la Peña (United States) (virtual reality, installation)
Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience – Elliott Mizroch (United States/United Kingdom) (virtual reality, installation)
Nox – Rio Nakada (Japan) (virtual reality, installation)
Bowie: Unseen Unheard – Denis O’Regan, Nick Ryan (United Kingdom) (immersive installation)
Octopocalypse – Max Sacker, Arite Szadkowski (Germany) (immersive installation)
Nevatars – Andy Serkis, Josh Youssef (United Kingdom/United States/Argentina) (smart glasses, installation)
Artou – Abderrahmane Sissako (France/Mauritania/Luxembourg) (virtual reality)
Being in You – Michał Stankiewicz (Poland) (virtual reality, installation)
Eyes of Shame (Gédos Akys) – Tomas Tamošaitis (Lithuania/France/Croatia) (virtual reality)
Yesterday Maybe – Matthieu Van Eeckhout (France) (virtual reality)
Disneynature’s Wolf: An Immersive Experience – Jeff Wilson (United Kingdom/United States/Canada) (immersive film)
The Pigeon Ring – Yuqi Zhang (China) (virtual reality, installation)
Venice Immersive – Out of Competition / Best of Experiences
In 36,000 Ways – Karim Ben Khelifa (Germany) (immersive installation)
Spomyny – Sophia Bulgakova (Netherlands/Ukraine) (immersive installation)
Hotel Infinity – William Chyr (United States) (virtual reality)
The Amusement – Eike Langbehn, Marc Barnes (Germany/France) (virtual reality)
Of Woman Born – Nalini Malani (India) (immersive installation)
Spymaster – Jeremy Moirano (France) (virtual reality)
Voooooo—Peeeepe— – Jiyun Park, Hyeunjoo Woo (South Korea) (virtual reality, haptics)
Crafting Crimes – Chloé Rochereuil (France/United States) (virtual reality)
Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes – Lucas Roussel (France) (virtual reality)
Venice Immersive – Out of Competition / Best of Worlds
Forgotten Empire – 3D Master (virtual reality)
Come Home – Aruse Arkani (virtual reality)
Liminal Nightmares – Autumn Boyd (virtual reality)
Veiled Dark – Dean`, Karl Kroenen (virtual reality)
Patriki VR – DrMorro (virtual reality)
I Feel Small – Fewiix (virtual reality)
Town of Connection – haruki_haru (virtual reality)
Limitless Pt.1: Enter the Void – Hill Jr. (virtual reality)
Vertical Horizon / 361 Degrees – Inloco Gallery (virtual reality)
Specularium – jasper ｡ (virtual reality)
Volare – Juice (virtual reality)
Demonhour – Chapter 1 – Kitsunaki, Jan Köster (virtual reality)
Celestium – Lavryou (virtual reality)
Fractured Winter – Lavryou (virtual reality)
Frozen Signal – Lavryou (virtual reality)
Memory – Lera Nibiru (virtual reality)
Noctiluca – LuminaPalette (virtual reality)
The Antikythera Mechanism – PHIAbunny, Thrill (virtual reality)
Break 25: Sinto Feliz – PK (virtual reality)
A Wonderful Thing to Realize – Screaming Color (virtual reality)
Tokogrammetry Museum – Tokoyoshi (virtual reality)
Blumea… – TontonDemon (virtual reality)
Dawn Beyond… – TontonDemon (virtual reality)
Spatialography – VoxelKei (virtual reality)
Half Empty – yuri_ts (virtual reality)
A World of My Own – 襟草たぬ (virtual reality)
Biennale College Cinema – Immersive – Out of Competition
The White Saboteur – Barthelemy Antoine-Loeff, Hugo Arcier (France/Germany) (virtual reality, installation)
Library of Dreams – Zhenya Rzheznikova (Israel/Germany) (virtual reality)
Desert Palms – Tristan Seniuk, John Gerard (United States) (immersive film)
Special Event
La Laguna Parla – Steye Hallema (Netherlands) (immersive live event)
(Translated from Italian)
