Digital Autumn: Sensation

A new festival will showcase the best immersive works of Tribeca and Venice VR in Moscow, Almaty and Tashkent

1 September 2022, Moscow – From October 21 to November 6 the Digital Autumn: Sensations Festival will take place in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan presenting 9 narrative VR projects from 6 countries.

“Every immersive project selected for display during the festival has a strong emotional story that triggers a Sensation, a feeling, a state of mind. Joy and laughter, sorrow and tears, peace and oneness – Sensations can be different, but what is important is our ability to experience those sensations as human-beings, to feel and empathize with each other and with the world around us” – says Alina Mikhaleva, founder of the Less Media Group and one of the organizers of the festival

Among the premieres of the festival is The Key – VR work by French artist Celine Tricard awarded with Storyscape for best interactive storytelling at Tribeca Film Festival in New York and Best VR Work at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019. This immersive story creates deep sense of connection with something very important that was lost, an important memory that needs to be unlocked with the key.

In addition to showcasing VR works, the organizers of the festival are announcing an open-call for digital artists from the region interested in developing immersive projects. Selected participants will qualify to take part in a free educational deep-dive course dedicated to XR development and to pitch their project to the industry leaders and studios during a virtual event. For more information on the open call, please follow the link; applications are accepted in Google forms here.

“For several years now our team has been bringing the best VR works to Russia opening this market to a new immersive space. This year it is especially important for us to expand the geography and to showcase not only in Moscow, but also in other cities – Tashkent and Almaty, – says Alina Mikhaleva. – Feelings and emotions are the universal language that does not require translation. Virtual reality is the new medium that brings us as close as possible to experiencing what another person might feel. This is a technology where a new art form is being born, and it is important for us to bring it to the new audiences”.

Both the festival and the open-call are organized by Less Media Group supported by the French Institute in Moscow. Georgy Molodtsov, award-winning VR director & festival curator, teamed up with Less Media Group to create a program for the festival.

About the program

VR projects from France, UK, USA, South Africa & Argentina will be showcased as part of the festival program.

Besides award-winning The Key, the program features the only XR project to win the prestigious Peabody Legacy Award for Excellence in Interactive Media – Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness. In this experience the viewer is immersed into a story of a British writer John Hull who suddenly lost his sight as he learns to live with it.

The full list of projects with video trailers is available here.

In all cities, the screening will be held in English or in the original language with English subtitles. Some of the works will also be available in Russian. Viewers will be supported by mediators who wiil help each visitor with VR equipment.

Key images for the festival are generated by Midjourney AI and refined by a human.