The 76th Venice International Festival will take place at the end of August and HTC Vive has announced that five of its original virtual reality (VR) works will be on display.
The five original VR pieces are films 5×1 — O, 5×1 — Only the mountain remains and 5×1 — The Making of, interactive art INORI and VR animation Gloomy Eyes. 5×1 — O, 5×1 — Only the mountain remains, INORI and Gloomy Eyes have all been entered into the Venice VR Competition, going for awards including Best VR Immersive Work, Best VR Immersive Story for linear content and Best VR Immersive Experience for interactive content.
While 5×1 — The Making of has been selected for the Venice VR-Best of (Out of Competition), joining other titles including Fable’s Wolves in the Walls: It’s all Over, Baobab’s Bonfire and A Fisherman’s Tale by Innerspace VR.
- 5×1 — O: Directed by Qiu Yang
- 5×1 — Only the mountain remains: Directed Wei-Liang Chiang the film discusses foreign labour issues.
- 5×1 — The Making of: Directed by Midi Z, the film “was shot on the first day we made Nina Wu, which means we made a VR film during movie shooting. This VR work mirrors Nina Wu,” he said.
- Gloomy Eyes: Previously show at the Sundance Film Festival, the animation chronicles a remote town where being a zombie is against the law.
- INORI: Created by Japanese contemporary artist, Miwa Komatsu, and music creative master, Kay Huang, the art piece will make its world premiere at the festival.
“This is a record-breaking time for HTC Vive Originals, with four originals VR work entering the Venice International Film Festival VR Competition and one film invited to be screened in Venice VR-Best of as an out of competition film, said HTC Vive Originals president, Szu-Ming Liu in a statement. “We have reached a milestone where we can truly build our reputation in a first-grade film festival. This is not just the pride within the Chinese cultural and creative industry. HTC is making an oath to develop a complete VR ecosystem. We will be the pioneer of VR content and witness the great leap of creativity, communication, and experience happening from 2D to 3D immersive spaces of human history.”
The Venice International Film Festival runs from 28th August to 7th September and is one of the most prestigious in the world alongside Cannes International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. For further updates on VR content at the festival, keep reading VRFocus.
