80th Venice International Film Festival: Filmstiftung-backed VR film "Upwind" by Florian Siebert in the Venice Immersive Competition

25.07.2023

Immersive VR experience by Düsseldorf-based Neonreal
With Wotan Wilke Möhring, Luise Befort, Moritz Führmann and many more.
Venice Production Bridge with German focus
Venice Film Festival: 30 August to 9 September, 2023

The 80th Venice International Film Festival begins on Wednesday, 30 August. The Venice Immersive competition will be presenting the VR experience "Upwind” (“Aufwind") by Florian Siebert, produced by Düsseldorf’s Neonreal, featuring Wotan Wilke Möhring, Luise Befort and Moritz Führmann, among others. The Mostra’s opening film is "Comandante" by Edoardo De Angelis.

Venice Production Bridge and Venice Immersive Market 2023 (31 August to 5 September)

Germany and Québec are the focus of this year’s Venice Production Bridge. The Venice Immersive Market will be held as part of the industry event and will gather all of the immersive activities during the festival on the Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio). Companies and institutions will be showcasing their activities in the Exhibition Area, and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW will also have a presence at the umbrella stand organised by Focus Germany – the amalgamation of the nine largest German regional film funds – and German Films. In addition, selected companies from Germany will be able to present their projects in the fields of VR/XR/AR at the Focus stand.

Focus Germany will also host a panel on "German XR-Gaming: Exploring the Potential and the Market of Narrative Games in XR" in the Immersive Space.

This year’s Country Focus will see German Films and Québec’s Société de développement des entreprises culturelles of (SODEC Québec), which promotes Québec’s cultural sector at home and abroad, organising a series of events including a discussion with the internationally successful directors Edward Berger and Xavier Dolan.

Venice Immersive is the XR – Extended Reality section of the 80th Venice International Film Festival. The section is dedicated exclusively to immersive media and considers all forms of creative expression that can be found in "augmented reality": all aspects could be submitted – from 360-degree videos through XR projects of all types and lengths to installations and entire virtual worlds, The festival was one of the first worldwide to include such a section in its programme.

"Below Deck": Wim Wenders Grant Holders at the "Venice Gap-Financing Market"
The XR-Experience "Below Deck", which received the Wim Wenders Grant in 2022, will be presented at the "Venice Gap-Financing Market". The German-Italian filmmaking duo TÒ SU, Hamburg-based set designer and artist Martina Mahlknecht and HfbK graduate Martin Prinoth, immerse themselves in the unknown world of Filipino low-wage workers on cruise ships in their documentary-feature hybrid. The film is about the dreams and fears of the below-deck crew in the booming cruise industry of fulfilled longings.