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Tribeca Immersive Festival Coming To Oculus April 17th

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​The​ ​Tribeca Film Festival announced plans today that select programming from the 19th annual Festival will be presented online. The programming includes the N.O.W. Creators Market, Jury and Art Awards, our Industry Extranet Resource Hub, and the brand storytelling Tribeca X Awards. 

Cinema360 will debut in partnership with Oculus and features 15 VR films which the public will be able to access via Oculus TV, for Oculus Go and Oculus Quest. Tribeca Immersive, an XR festival within the festival is one of the premiere events of the year for the VR industry. The meticulously curated location-based event has been presenting the world’s finest immersive storytelling since 2013. 

The festival hopes the Immersive Arcade, and the rest of their live programming, will be back in New York in the fall. With today’s announcement, they also released a list of those location-based immersive productions we won’t be seeing for now. In the meantime, the first remotely offered Cinema360 will feature 15 VR films, curated into four 30-40 minute programs. Films are viewable from April 17 through April 25 in Oculus TV, available for Oculus Go or Oculus Quest headsets. Ten of the fifteen creators are making their global premiere at Tribeca Film Festival.

In addition to screening the entire 2020 Tribeca Cinema360 slate, Oculus is also releasing “​The Key​,” which will be available as an app for Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift-S, and Oculus Quest. This project won the 2019 Tribeca Storyscapes Award, which honors​ ​artists who bridge the gap between technology and storytelling. The Key was made in conjunction with Friends of Refugees and Oculus VR For Good and premiered in competition at the 2019 edition of the Festival. The Key went on to win the Golden Lion award at Venice VR 2019, and was featured at 12 other international festivals.

“Now, more than ever, we are feeling incredibly isolated from one another,” said Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer of Film & Immersive. “The XR community is very much a global community, as evidenced by this program which features work from China, South Korea, Spain and Ethiopia, just to name a few. It’s my hope that by providing these remarkable 360 films to a global audience during this trying time, we can do our part to bring people back together in the name of great art and shared perspectives.”

The following program descriptions were provided by the festival. 

Cinema360 Program 1: Dreams to Remember

These dreamlike experiences are journeys of adventure, from an immigrant worker’s poetic and alienating vision of his new home country, to the seemingly impossible first mission to an unexplored moon.

1st Step​ (International Premiere)—Germany

Project Creators: Joerg Courtial, Maria Courtial

1st Step​ is equal parts documentary and fairy tale, telling the magical story of a dream come true: the Apollo missions. Follow the missions from launch all the way through to return, and find yourself gazing at lunar panoramas re-created from NASA's archival photos.

Dear Lizzy​ (World Premiere)—USA

Project Creator: Within & Fivehundred

Key Collaborator: Deborah's Child

Lizzy​ ​takes a walk as she reads a letter from a long lost friend. The road is long and there are many strange and beautiful things to see along the way. Yet Lizzy keeps walking. What is she searching for?

Forgotten Kiss​ (World Premiere)—Finland

Project Creator: Oleg Nikolaenko

Key Collaborator: Daniil Bakalin

Based on the story ​Forgotten Kiss​ by Russian writer Alexander Kuprin, this film tells the beautiful legend of a royal prince, who was kissed by the magic Fairy of the Spring Night. As the prince grew up he kept looking for something incomprehensible, something completely forgotten: the forgotten kiss of the fairy.

Rain Fruits​ (World Premiere)—South Korea

Project Creators: Youngyoon Song, Sngmoo Lee

Key Collaborators: Sergio Bromberg, Hyejin Jeon, Jinhyung Kim, Hwaeun Kim

Tharu comes to Korea from Myanmar in hopes of becoming a trained engineer. After a series of experiences as an alien worker in this capitalist country, he realizes that one’s dream cannot be found anywhere in the world but where his heart is: his homeland.

Cinema360 Program 2: Seventeen Plus

Future classics in search of cults, this collection of mind-bending narrative experiences is designed for more mature audiences.

A Safe Guide to Dying ​(World Premiere)—USA

Project Creator: Dimitris Tsilifonis

Key Collaborator: Froso Tsipopoulou

Linus is on a journey to find painless ways to die inside a video game simulation that emulates sensory experiences. While experimenting with different suicide methods, he realizes he cannot log out. Trapped in a digital abyss, a force is set in motion to reconnect Linus with his offline self.

Black Bag​ (North American Premiere)—China

Project Creator: Shao Qing

Ex-military security guard, Mr. S works for a bank and leads the life of a normal working-class man. He fantasizes about a major heist, a dream that becomes reality. This VR film uses abstract metaphor combined with a unique hand-painted art style to create an intense thriller.

The Pantheon of Queer Mythology​ (World Premiere)—Spain

Project Creator: Enrique Agudo

Key Collaborator: Tim Deluxe

The Pantheon of Queer Mythology​ is a window into the world of a collective of Deities that present a way to question, empathize, celebrate, repent, resist, consume, abstract, identify, regenerate, and love in complex times. Step in, dare to learn, be inspired to grow, and enjoy the queerness.

Saturnism​ (World Premiere)—France

Project Creator: Mihai Grecu

Step inside one of the darkest paintings in the history of art: Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son. You will find yourself alone with mad Saturn himself in the cold and gloomy landscape.​ ​Saturnism ​is a visceral and primitive 360 experience.

Cinema360 Program 3: Kinfolk

Three stories of homes and families.

Ferenj: A Graphic Memoir In VR ​(World Premiere)—USA, Ethiopia

Project Creator: Ainslee A. Robson

Key Collaborator: Liam Young

Ferenj​ is a visual dialogue between memory, reality, and the digital in an immersive memoir about Ethiopian-American mixed-race identity.

Inhabited House, The ​(North American Premiere)—Argentina

Project Creator: Diego Kompel

Creator Diego Kompel resurrects fond memories of his grandparents house in this inventive non-fiction work. Compositing 360 footage of the house with actual home movies that help bring the past to life, this experience is an exercise in formalism that draws on the power of remembrance, reverence, and family.

Home ​(International Premiere)—Taiwan ROC

Project Creator: HSU Chih-Yen

Key Collaborators: Kaohsiung Film Archive, Hsu Chih Yen Director Studios, Funique VR Studio

In this beautifully poignant experience, a family gathers at their old house on a summer afternoon. They surround grandma, though she's no longer able to move, react, or hear clearly. As people come and go, the day stretches on—leading to the inevitable end of the gathering.

Cinema360 Program 4: Pure Imagination

Stories of innovation and illusion, with a healthy dose of inspiration.

Lutaw​ (World Premiere)—USA, Philippines

Project Creator: Samantha Quick

Key Collaborator: Michaela Holland

Like so many others in her remote area of the Philippines, Germany must swim between the small islands in order to travel to the nearest school. But she’s determined to find a better way to commute. This 3D animated experience is made in partnership with Oculus VR for Good and Yellow Boat of Hope.

Attack on Daddy​ (North American Premiere)—South Korea

Project Creator: Sung Sihup

It’s Sunday afternoon and an exhausted daddy lies on the couch. Annoyed with his daughter’s pestering pleas to play, he falls asleep and wakes up to find her missing. Sensing something awry, daddy quickly realizes that the answer to the mystery lies in her seemingly abandoned dollhouse.

Tale of the Tibetan Nomad​ (World Premiere)—USA Project Creator: Carol Liu

Key Collaborator: Stan Lai

A newlywed nomad and his wife bask in the flush of new love. He falls asleep then awakens to discover his wife has disappeared. Embarking on a quest to find her, he’s led into a life he never dreamed of—one that soon slips beyond his control.

Upstander​ (World Premiere)—USA

Project Creator: Van Phan

Key Collaborator: Oculus VR for Good

Upstander ​is a 360 animated experience about bullying and how we, as bystanders, can make a difference. Immersing the audience in a world adjacent to our own, you are challenged to think and take action. How can we be part of the solution and not be part of the problem?

“As human beings, we are navigating uncharted waters,” said Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “While we cannot gather in person to lock arms, laugh, and cry, it’s important for us to stay socially and spiritually connected. Tribeca is about resiliency, and we fiercely believe in the power of artists to bring us together. We were founded after the devastation of 9/11 and it’s in our DNA to bring communities together through the arts.”


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