The prestigious Cannes Film Festival, which begins this week, has added extended reality, XR , as an official category and competition. Cannes was an early supporter of VR, and featured Aljandro Innaratu’sVR experience in 2017, where it won a special award. Cannes now joins the Venice and Tribeca film festivals and SXSW, which have included XR experiences since 2016.
The in-competition works can host 3-25 guests per experience with a collective exhibition throughput of approximately 542 people per day. It’s peanuts compared to cinema, however, it’s easy to forget that cinema, like XR, was once an emerging art form and medium.International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, Thursday, April 11, 2024 in Paris. The Cannes Film Festival will run from May 14 to May 25 2024.
“If the objective is to make a point that immersive art is distinct from the art form of cinema, then we need to be consistent in our messaging. It’s important to avoid immersive works appearing as a genre or an extension of cinema at the Awards Ceremony for cinematic works. We would also like to take another bet by organizing a dedicated event where the medium is celebrated and immersive artists are the real stars of the ceremony,” says Immersive Competition Project Director Elie Levasseur.