Immersive works transport audiences to new realities at Venice Film Festival

In a dimly lit room at the Venice Film Festival, audiences don specialized vests and headphones and step into a story projected across multiple silk screens, reported Xinhua.

As the vest glows in sync with the narrative, the boundary between viewer and story fades away, transporting the audience to a new dimension.

These cutting-edge technologies and narrative forms are the core of the Venice Immersive section, at the ongoing 81st Venice Film Festival. One of the festival's most innovative sections, Venice Immersive features the latest works in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (XR). Twenty-six projects are competing for the top prize in this category.

"This section was launched at the Venice Film Festival in 2016," said Michel Reilhac, consultant for Venice Immersive, in an interview with Xinhua. "Today, it remains the biggest festival for immersive works in the world."

Held on a small island near the Lido, where the main festival events take place, Venice Immersive provides tailor-made spaces designed to enhance the interactive nature of the projects.

"As a film producer, this is my first time trying an immersive work, and it's impressive," said Michal Horvath, a Slovenian film producer who visited a piece focused on Impressionist artists. "The headset and 360-degree filming perfectly show the impressionist painting."

The section aims to connect traditional film-making with emerging immersive technologies, encouraging filmmakers to explore new possibilities, Reilhac added.

Many Chinese elements are showcased in this year's international works. "There is a great success of immersive experiences in China. It can be in a mall, a gallery or a museum. You buy a ticket and experience the project. It's getting popular in China," said Reilhac.

Liz Rosenthal, another consultant from the section, noted that major studios like Marvel are collaborating on immersive projects, sharing their intellectual properties with artists to expand the possibilities of this medium.

Many of the immersive projects extend beyond headsets, creating fully reconstructed environments such as apartments, lush gardens, and alien worlds. Audiences interact with these spaces through wearable devices, making the experience more personal and engaging.

According to Rosenthal, around 16,000 tickets for screenings have already been sold, and rush lines have been set up for those without reservations.

However, challenges remain. "The headsets are still too big, complex, and sometimes heavy," Reilhac said, adding that this problem is a block to the medium's mass appeal. "It will be much easier when technology evolves to produce more compact devices."