Seven virtual reality (VR) works involving Taiwanese were selected for the Venice VR Expanded section of the 78th Venice International Film Festival, a nomination record for local VR content, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) said on Friday.
The seven works, announced by the festival on Thursday, comprised five that were shortlisted for the section’s main competition, one in the Best of VR Expanded-Out of Competition category and one in the Special Event-Out of Competition category, the agency said.
The five projects entered in the main competition — The Sick Rose (病玫瑰), Samsara (輪迴), The Last Worker, The Starry Sand Beach, and Bedlam — were international coproductions that had received support from the agency, it said.
They would be competing for the Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Work, Best VR Experience and Best VR Story, it said.
Speak to Awaken Ep.2 Kusunda (喚說其語 Ep.2 庫桑達), which was funded by the Kaohsiung Film Archive’s Kaohsiung VR Film Lab, and In the Mist (霧中) by director Chou Tung-yen (周東彥), were selected for the Best of VR Expanded-Out of Competition and Special Event-Out of Competition sections respectively, it said.
“TAICCA’s efforts in encouraging international cofunding and coproduction, promoting international exchanges of talent and supporting content development with technology is bearing fruit after two years,” TAICCA chairwoman Ting Hsiao-ching (丁曉菁) said on Thursday.
The agency would continue to cultivate global talent, consolidate resources worldwide and help develop more content to promote Taiwanese works to the world and to further push the boundaries of extended reality content, she said.
Many of the selected works were international coproductions, sending a strong message that art is an international endeavor, Venice VR Expanded cocurator Michel Reilhac said.
There has been an incredible diversity in style and genre of the works produced by Taiwanese this year, he said.
Taiwanese new media artist Huang Hsin-chien (黃心健), who directed Samsara, said that VR films are not only an act of storytelling, but also “story living.”
Samsara is based on the idea of time as an illusion, he said, adding that in the film, he incorporated many Taiwanese cultural elements.
Samsara is to premiere at the Kaohsiung Film Festival in October, Kaohsiung Film Archive director Yang Meng-yin (楊孟穎) said.
She believes with the resources and support of TAICCA, which was established in June 2019, the nation can create a more diverse environment for its immersive experience industry, Yang said.
The works selected for Venice VR Expanded are to be displayed online and at 14 satellite venues, Venice VR Expanded cocurator Liz Rosenthal said.
Venice VR Expanded is to be held online from Sept. 1 to 19.
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