24/11/2009

The International 3D Stereo Film and Technology Festival will take place from December 1-3, in Liège and Brussels.

Behind its rather obscure name lies an event open to professionals working with 3D images in all their diversity, from amusement parks to advertising, and, of course, cinema.

The aim of this three-day meeting is to evaluate all the technology currently available for generating 3D images, on all types of media. Numerous conferences will be held, as well as a market where many Belgian and European companies will offer demonstrations of their expertise.

The festival will also host a section for the general public, with screenings of 3D works. Besides the presentation of two US horror films, set to make adults tremble, the festival will also be a chance to get an eyeful, quite literally, of a great variety of 3D works, including those by Belgium’s Ben Stassen, a pioneer in the genre.

While some may be lucky enough to have already seen Fly Me to the Moon [+see also:
trailer
film profile], kitted out with magic glasses, the festival will be a unique opportunity to re-discover a large part of Stassen’s filmography, from the innovative Alien Adventure (1999), to African Adventure: Safari in the Okavango (2007), a 40-minute documentary about one of Africa’s most beautiful reserves. Also on the line-up is sumptuous short film Turtle Vision, which foreshadows his next project, Around the World in 50 Years, set to be released in 2010.

Stassen presents 3D as a language that will turn the film world upside down, the second revolution on the big screen, after talking films. He champions this tool, which makes it possible to combine film’s capacity for emotional and intellectual immersion with a purely physical immersion.

While US studios have announced that before long they will only produce animated films in 3D, 3D is more than ever the near future of cinema.

(Translated from French)