Currently running this week is the Venice VR Expanded event as part of the prestigious Venice Film Festival, where lots of interactive and non-interactive content is available to view. Next month, the BFI’s London Film Festival will be following a similar line announcing LFF Expanded this week.
LFF Expanded will be the festival’s dedicated selection of immersive film and art, across virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) as well as live immersive performances. Just like every other event in 2020, LFF Expanded will be online and viewable from home thanks to a new virtual exhibition space, The Expanse.
Created by INVR.Space, The Expanse will be the home of the entire LFF Expanded programme, containing twenty XR works including 360-degree videos. A virtual theatre will house live talks and sessions plus an opening event. To access The Expanse at home you’ll need an Oculus Quest or if you’re in London BFI Southbank will have several for attendees to book and experience the show. Additionally, a 360 video programme will be available via Oculus TV and the WebXR LFF 360 Player.
“While the inaugural XR programme for the BFI London Film Festival will look different than what we had originally envisioned…out of necessity sometimes comes innovation and we are hugely excited to present our LFF Expanded plans for 2020,” said XR Programmer Ulrich Schrauth in a statement. Shifting the full artistic programme into the virtual realm makes it even more accessible for all kinds of audiences and creates new opportunities for creative formats and artistic impression. We are very proud and thankful that all these amazing artists have entrusted us with their work. And it feels that together, we are shaping the future of immersive art exhibition.”
“Despite the challenges of the year, we are so thrilled to be able to deliver such an ambitious first LFF Expanded. This new programme of XR, Immersive and Interactive works will sit alongside our film programme, as we also expand to include series, television and episodic filmmaking. We are eager to create a platform for showcasing brilliant new work at the Festival that reflects the blurring boundaries of many of these visual storytelling forms and a future in which creators move with increasing ease between them,” adds BFI London Film Festival Director, Tricia Tuttle.
LFF Expanded has also partnered with the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio to present All Kinds of Limbo for the first time. LFF Expanded will take place throughout the BFI London Film Festival from 7-18 October 2020. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.
