May 13, 2020 – After unveiling the Marché du Film Online, a standalone online market to be held from 22 to 26 June, the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes has announced the reshape of Cannes XR in a digital only event dedicated to immersive technologies and works, Cannes XR Virtual.
From 24 to 26 June, Cannes XR Virtual will provide a destination where professionals from the traditional filmmaking industry, along with XR artists, independent producers, tech companies, and online distributors can come together to imagine and shape the future of movies.
Jérôme Paillard, Executive Director of the Marché du Film said: “It is a very special edition. After having prepared for a promising edition in Cannes, where for the first time we would have expanded the VR to the Palm Beach, we had to reinvent Cannes XR and find a way to put it online. I’m very impressed to see how fast, with our spectacular team and our wonderful partners, it has been possible to build a totally new concept where we will be able to show worldwide, and with optimal quality, the VR experiences that we were expecting to show in Cannes”.
In this year’s reimagined edition, Cannes XR Virtual will be presented in different formats on several platforms:
- Cannes XR Virtual will be open to VR users at the Museum of Other Realities (MOR), a virtual art gallery specialized in featuring immersive work from VR artists around the world. The entire virtual programme will remain available until 3 July via the MOR application on Steam, Viveport, and Oculus;
- Cannes XR Virtual 2D live video stream shot by a virtual cameraman from the MOR, including conferences, pitching sessions and project presentations, will be accessible on the Marché du Film Online. Cannes XR Virtual 2D live video stream will also be available on the Tribeca Film Festival and Kaleidoscope websites;
- Cannes XR Virtual inaugural VeeR 360 Cinema, which will offer a selection of 360 cinematic experiences at Cannes XR Virtual, will be showcased on the VeeR VR Video Platform. VeeR is also inviting artists worldwide to submit work for showcasing – the call for projects is now open via Kaleidoscope;
- A network of partner Location Based Entertainment (LBE) in several major cities in the United States, China and France will offer access to Cannes XR Virtual to journalists and guests who do not have a VR headset.
“The MOR is a perfect place to host an ambitious and stylistically challenging event like Cannes XR” said Robin Stethem, Cofounder of the Museum of Other Realities. “Creating a virtual venue that can host numerous showcases, VR arcades, 360 cinemas and networking spaces where some of the finest global digital players can meet and interact is what we love to do. The MOR is a place to connect, share, and experience virtual reality art with others, and so we hope everyone who is interested in XR creation will join us for the virtual edition of Cannes XR.”
Furthermore, the Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, continues its long-time partnership with the Marché du Film and Cannes XR this year. A custom virtual showcase of XR projects curated by Tribeca will make its exclusive debut for a three-day exhibition. The line-up is curated from Tribeca Immersive’s 2020 programming, and includes select World Premieres which were intended to debut earlier this year, prior to the postponement of the 19th annual Tribeca Film Festival.
“We’re thrilled to be able to present selections from the 2020 Tribeca Virtual Arcade at Cannes XR. We are turning towards innovation as a solution in these uncertain times. While we continue to explore the future of physical exhibition, this is an exciting moment to share our immersive curation with an expanded global audience, and Cannes is the perfect partner to help us to accomplish this.” – Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer, Film & Immersive.
Marché du Film has also announced this year’s Cannes XR Development Showcase, which is being curated in association with Kaleidoscope, and offers an opportunity for virtual and augmented reality titles in-development to be pitched, showcased and benefit from pre-arranged 1:1 meetings with experts in the XR industry*. The submission process for the showcase was announced earlier this year in February.
René J. Pinnell, CEO and co-founder of Kaleidoscope, commented: “I believe that events like Cannes XR are crucial hotspots on the global map of independent immersive creation, and play a major role in building a system of support for digital artists.”
Jingshu Chen, Co-founder of VeeR, said: “Together with Cannes XR, we aim to find more ways to support immersive content creators, to push the limit of 360 content. With the development of 5G networks in China, VR is growing faster than ever and there’s great demand for premium VR content in Chinese market.” In addition to the online showcase, VeeR has also planned a LBE showcase in China, with the anticipation of connecting projects with investors and collaborators.
Cannes XR Virtual will be accessible to industry professionals registered with the Marché du Film Online. Accreditations for the Marché du Film Online will open May 12 at an early bird rate of EUR €95 until May 29 and EUR €195 rate after that. Cannes XR Virtual will be open to users with a VR headset at the Museum of Other Realities (MOR). Cannes XR Virtual 2D live video stream will also be available on the Tribeca Film Festival and Kaleidoscope websites. Additionally, the VeeR 360 Cinema program will be available on the VeeR VR Video Platform.
Names who have confirmed their participation as Decision Makers at this year’s Cannes XR Virtual include:
- Todd Shaiman – Head of Immersive Arts at Google
- Colum Slevin – Head of Media, ARVR Experiences at Facebook
- Ishita Kapur – Director, Mixed Reality Content and Partnerships at Microsoft
- Jingshu Chen – Co-Founder at VeeR VR
- Jake Sally – Head of Development at RYOT / Verizon
- Sarah Vick – Executive Producer at Intel Studios
Video / image credit: Museum of Other Realities / YouTube / Marché du Film
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.