{"id":673887,"date":"2026-09-05T12:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/673887\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T12:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:36:10","slug":"venice-immersive-celebrates-10-years-of-xr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/673887\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice Immersive celebrates 10 years of XR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTen editions in, Venice Immersive<\/a> has plenty to celebrate \u2014 just don\u2019t expect the new-media showcase to spend much time looking back.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re not planning any retrospectives,\u201d Venice Immersive counselor Michel Reilhac says of this year\u2019s landmark edition. \u201cInstead, we want to focus on what\u2019s happening next. This really feels like the beginning of a second chapter, for us and for the wider medium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, it\u2019s impossible to mark the milestone without taking stock. What launched in a modest nook between two floors of the Palazzo del Casin\u00f2 now occupies its own island in the lagoon \u2014 evolving from festival curiosity into a key hub for a protean art form.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe industry\u2019s progress, meanwhile, has been anything but linear. The long-awaited consumer boom in personal headsets never quite materialized. Project financing from platforms and hardware makers contracted sharply as a result, and (mostly European) public funding stepped in as a bridge \u2014 though global profitability is now increasingly coming from elsewhere, as event-based spaces and collective exhibition models prove viable on their own terms.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe location-based entertainment (LBE) model now drives the market,\u201d says counselor Liz Rosenthal. \u201cIn Asia especially, we\u2019ve seen an explosion of LBE centers built for scale, showcasing projects designed for groups of six, eight, 10 people up to hundreds, depending on the space. The storytelling and design have gotten far more sophisticated, too. In the past you weren\u2019t really embodied as a character, and you couldn\u2019t interact with objects or people. That\u2019s changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCompetition titles like \u201cAmsterdam 1652: The Hands of the City,\u201d \u201cSmithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience\u201d and \u201cEverest: The First Ascent\u201d embody that shift, bringing free-roam, multiplayer experiences to educational and heritage venues. Their partners lend a degree of stability \u2014 and, increasingly, new sources of financing. \u201cSmithsonian Starstruck,\u201d for instance, was funded by Fever, the leading marketing and ticketing platform for immersive experiences worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNew models are starting to emerge,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cWith Fever, we\u2019re seeing private investment with distribution attached \u2014 they\u2019re putting money into the production while also bringing the ticketing, marketing and audience infrastructure to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNew actors are even rethinking existing models as immersive productions keep taking new shapes. In a certain light, the music experience \u201cBowie: Unseen | Unheard\u201d could be seen as an artistic showcase underwritten by a hardware manufacturer eager to demonstrate its latest technology. Only here, that company is speaker maker L-Acoustics, and the project does away with headsets entirely \u2014 redefining immersive LBE around spatial sound.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSound is art, and we mean to showcase that,\u201d says L-Acoustics exec Amber Mundinger. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important to show the possibilities of how experiences can be delivered at the highest level of quality. A purpose-built space like the one created for Venice can be replicated around the world, giving people the same unique experience. The goal is to keep it intimate, with 20 to 30 people at a time living inside Bowie\u2019s world while staying sonically true each time. That\u2019s where LBE is heading.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, the 30 projects selected for this year\u2019s Venice Immersive competition illustrate just how far the ecosystem has expanded beyond tech. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is backing \u201cEmpire at Sea,\u201d while human rights organization B\u2019Tselem makes its first foray into production with \u201cRaj\u2019in (We Shall Return),\u201d a 360-degree documentary following three Palestinian families in the West Bank. National film funds and co-production partners, meanwhile, have adapted traditional film-financing structures for XR \u2014 even turning arthouse \u00e9minences grises like Abderrahmane Sissako (\u201cArtou\u201d) into immersive evangelists.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor her part, director Hilde K. Kj\u00f8s is helping guide new institutional players into the fold. The filmmaker and photographer discovered VR during the pandemic, escaping lockdown through her headset and quickly getting hooked. She channeled that passion into \u201cFinding Frida,\u201d which casts the work of 19th century textile artist Frida Hansen into a dreamlike world. Notably, the project is also the first XR title supported by the Norwegian Film Institute.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film is about the importance of role models,\u201d says Kj\u00f8s. \u201cWe hope it can show the way for other filmmakers coming from documentary and 2D, so we\u2019re treating it more like a pilot than a prototype, effectively running out ahead, building structures and sharing knowledge about everything from pipelines to international distribution, so that the system can catch up. They can take a chance once, but the Norwegian Film Institute and other funders need to see projects succeed in order to come back and fund more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cFinding Frida\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lineup:<\/p>\n

\n\tProjects featuring David Bowie, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie and Isabelle Huppert bring plenty of star power to this year\u2019s Venice Immersive. But the festival\u2019s biggest draw may turn out to be a pair of glasses that weigh next to nothing.<\/p>\n

\n\tEnter the XREAL Aura, Google-powered AR smart glasses being positioned as a potential jolt for a sluggish headset market.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese glasses overcome one of the main hurdles to global access,\u201d says Venice Immersive counselor Michel Reilhac. \u201cPrevious VR headsets have always felt clunky and heavy. Now you get similar definition, color and contrast in something streamlined, lightweight, easy to carry and wear. They will define the next decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCapitalizing on the buzz, festival organizers have partnered with Agog \u2014 the XR institute co-founded by Wendy Schmidt \u2014 to run a four-day \u201cpetting zoo,\u201d where festivalgoers and industry delegates can drop in, no reservation required, to test the hardware. The Immersive competition will also feature two experiences built for the device: Andy Serkis\u2019s \u201cNevatars,\u201d starring Daisy Ridley, and the Margot Robbie-hosted \u201cGal\u00e1pagos: The Last Eden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMost of what we\u2019ve seen until now has been data- or sound-driven demos,\u201d Reilhac says. \u201cWhereas these two are fully fledged spatial narratives, with sophisticated storytelling and AI-driven voice activation that lets you talk directly to the characters. The magic is having that level of aesthetic and sonic quality in an ordinary pair of glasses. That\u2019s a new wow effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor \u201cGal\u00e1pagos\u201d director Anthony Geffen, interactivity is the real breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou have to play to the medium\u2019s strengths,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019re not just watching Margot Robbie take you through the islands \u2014 you can reach out, engage with the world and see how the animals have changed. We even built a digital Darwin you can turn to at any point, and he\u2019ll answer questions about his time there or anything else you want to know. That\u2019s what makes this different from film, television or gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe abundance of boldface talent attached to this year\u2019s projects is no accident. In a medium still defining its own identity, star appeal is a strategic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re still in Immersive\u2019s M\u00e9li\u00e8s or Edison era,\u201d says industry veteran Peter Flaherty. \u201cWe\u2019re building the grammar and syntax for an undefined art form \u2014 figuring out how to tell a story for eight to ten people at once, in an amorphous participatory experience, without alienating the audience. That\u2019s why casting matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor \u201cEmpire at Sea\u201d \u2014 an AR drama that threads climate science into a propulsive narrative \u2014 Flaherty chose familiarity over megawatt fame, betting that veteran character actors like Orlando Jones and Beth Grant would do a better job onboarding viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat subconscious effect of recognizing someone without necessarily placing them makes the audience more comfortable with the storytelling,\u201d Flaherty says. \u201cIt makes the experience less uncanny. Overall, leaning into familiarity is exactly where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten editions in, Venice Immersive has plenty to celebrate \u2014 just don\u2019t expect the new-media showcase to spend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[260],"tags":[18,19,17,82,284834,286,287,288],"class_list":["post-673887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-venice-immersive","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117218469471989912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}