WHAT WE DO
The Immersive Residency is tailor-made for immersive projects in development and their team members. We prepare a creative, inspiring environment and our mentors support the producers and creative directors to refine their concepts, change perspectives, explore boundaries and meet challenges.
In group and individual coaching sessions, we help you develop your ideas in a safe and protected environment.
LOCATION
Luxembourg! We will work in the inspiring spaces of 1535° Creative Hub in Differdinge - and we will stay in Esch-Belval.
FOR WHOM
We address XR producers and creators with a narrative and/or artistic immersive project in early to mid-stage development. We are looking for innovative storytelling, new forms of audience engagement, relevant topics and original ideas.
Participation is for 2 participants (ideally: producer, creative lead) per project.
The Immersive Residency will host 7 - 10 projects. Invitation is on jury's decision during July.
We are primarily aiming at European participants, but are also open to applications from outside Europe.
WHAT WE OFFER
The 5-day residency offers the unique opportunity to work intensively on the further development of your ideas and to significantly advance your project. Our experienced mentors will accompany, inspire, share knowledge and help face challenges.
The Immersive Residency is a creative retreat for you, your team and your project. We want to help make projects possible. That's why the residency is just the beginning of a journey.
AFTER THE RESIDENCY
Online mentoring sessions after the Residency
Participants will have the option of late entry in the Prototyping Lab (9-13 October in Leipzig) if they decide to continue their work on the project, (re)build their prototype and receive even more professional feedback from an international group of XR developers and experts. Participation in the Prototyping Lab will be at their own expense, though.
Until the end of the year, participants will have the opportunity to re-apply with their project: we will invite up to 3 projects and their teams to the next VR Exhibition and Conference during the Lux Film Festival in March 2024!
| Call | closed |
| Residency: | 11. - 15.09.2023 |
| Travel Dates: | 10. – 16.09.2023 |
| Duration: | 5 days full-time |
| Location: |
Differdinge (Luxembourg) |
| Covered by EUCL: | Participation fee, 6 nights accommodation, catering, networking events |
| Not Covered: | Your travel costs, private expenses, drinks |
WE ARE PROUD TO WELCOME AND WORK WITH:
Darren is an Immersive Artist, Director, Writer and Producer and the Co-Founder of London production company East City Films. His work uses Virtual Reality to fuse cinema, theatre, music, interaction, immersion and embodiment to create works that focus on notions of community both structured and organic.
In 2015 Darren created his first VR experience Witness 360: 7/7 which was selected in competition at IDFA Doc Lab. In 2016, his VR documentary Indefinite won the Immersive Commission by Sheffield Doc/Fest, going on to be featured in a specially commissioned New York Times Op-Ed. In 2018 Darren was commissioned by Creative XR to create the room-scale documentary Common Ground, which won Best Immersive Storytelling at Sandbox Immersive Festival, the Grand Prix Innovation at Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Best VR Experience at the Broadcast Awards, and Best VR Narrative at the World Press Photo Awards. In 2022 In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats launched at Coventry City of Culture with a 6-week sold out exhibition and won the award for Immersive Non-Fiction at IDFA Doclab. The project continues to tour International Festivals and Galleries to rave reviews.
In 2023 Darren served as Creative Director for 3 VR experiences commissioned by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. He also directed one of these films, Letters from Drancy which is set to premiere later this year.
Ioulia is a Berlin based VR director, writer and producer with strong roots in classical filmmaking, who dove full time into VR production 6 years ago and is the Co-Founder and CEO of AnotherWorld VR. She directed, produced and wrote PAGAN PEAK VR, that premiered at the 76th Venice Film Festival (listed as one of the 29 best VR experiences of 2019 by Forbes). Ioulia produced and co-wrote KOBOLD VR, that premiered at the 75th Venice Film Festival in 2018 and was named one of the 5 best horror VR games by Forbes. She co-produced BYSTANDING VR, that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021 and won the Lovie Award and the 2022 Telly Award. Ioulia also wrote, directed and produced KOMEZ ALEF O that premiered at SXSW 2022.
At AnotherWorld VR she supervised projects for clients such as Balenciaga (AnotherWorld VR developed the entire S21 Balenciaga runway show in VR) and Hugo Boss.
Additionally, since 2020, Ioulia co-founded and is the CTO of Proof of Taste GmbH together with Max Sacker, Dennis “Denyo” Lisk (Platinum winning German musician) and Fabian Vogelsteller (developer of the ERC20 of Ethereum), which focuses on creating a music metaverse with the inclusion of blockchain technology.
Ioulia is a board member of the Virtual Reality Berlin Brandenburg association and a tutor for VR production at schools and universities.
Vassiliki Khonsari is an award-winning creative producer. Cofounder of iNK Stories, the acclaimed studio known for its genre defining approach to storytelling and creative technology––with a distinctive pedigree across immersive, games, films, XR, and blockbuster AAA franchises.
iNK's original titles have received the industry's top honors, including the recent 2023 Sundance + Stars Collective Imagination Award for Best Metaverse, BAFTA Nominations, AIS Lumiere Award for Best Immersive, META's Game of the Year, Tribeca's Storyscapes Award, Mobile Game Award Winner, IGN's Best of E3, and Academy of Interactive Sciences for Best Game, Telly Award, New York Game Critics Awards for Best Writing and Best Game, Dice Award Nomination Best Game and Best Director, Jury Top Prize at IndieCade, Nexon Award, UNESCO and more. Collaborations include Louverture Films, Meta, Google, Verizon, Pico, Microsoft, and more.
Khonsari's background is as a Visual Anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, and contributes to the dialogue of inclusion and equity in the entertainment industry. Khonsari consults and mentors at top institutions like Sundance, Tribeca, CPH:Dox, AIDC, Visions du Reel, and Talent LabXR. Founding Member of Rolling Stone Culture Council, PGA's Women's Impact Network and Ambassador for Women in Games.
Johan is an award-winning film director, writer, and artist living in Copenhagen, Denmark.
He graduated from independent film school Super16 in 2012 with the critically acclaimed short fiction ‘Copenhagen Love Story’, about the last days of Danish poet Michael Strunge. In recognition of his work, he received a grant from the Danish Arts Foundation in 2013.
In 2014 the innovative film installation 'The Doghouse' opened in Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre. Through virtual reality technology it enables the audience to experience the characters' individual, subjective points of view within an awkward family dinner. In the following years, the installation toured around the world at film festivals and art institutions, and marked Johan as a part of the international elite within VR and art film.
From 2015 he and producer Mads Damsbo led the progressive studio Makropol, focusing on experimental and innovative art film, from where many new works took shape. Among these were 'Ewa Out Of Body', which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, and 'Anthropia', a 400m2 film installation and oversized mini golf court made of marble, which opened at Copenhagen Contemporary in 2017. The works have all been shown at the most influential art and film festivals worldwide receiving several awards along the way, including Grand Prix Innovation from FNC and Reflet d'Or from GIFF.
'Anthropia' even received the great honor of providing a private viewing for both Lars von Trier and Olafur Eliasson.
After the premiere of 'Martyr' at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in 2020, Johan chose to work independently to devote himself to his work with feature films and TV series. This led him to work with Peter Aalbæk and Zentropa on developing several projects for both screen and television. Currently Johan is working with Danish production studio Hyena Film, releasing the short fiction ‘Homecoming’ in 2023.
In addition to his cinematic work, Johan has both directed and written several plays; an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's 'Through A Glass Darkly' at Regionteatern in Sweden in 2018, ‘The Shared Individual’ in 2016, which opened at IDFA and later at the Danish National Theatre, and the adaptation of Paul Auster's 'Mr. Vertigo' at Betty Nansen theatre in Denmark in 2005 with Søren Malling and Pilou Asbæk among others.
Johan is also an active musician and has released several acclaimed albums.
François Le Gall, executive producer and co-manager of a_BAHN (Luxembourg), is a pioneer in new media. He produces audacious documentaries, animated features and immersive experiences (Tupac Martir's Cosmos Within Us, Jan Kounen's 7 Lives and Ayahuasca), with always an international reach. A graduate of the EAVE Producer Workshop 2020, he is a founding member of ALPA/XR (Luxembourg Association of Animation and Immersive Experience Producers), and co-founder of Luxembourg's first immersive arts studio, Velvet Flare.