Venice Immersive - the section dedicated to XR (extended reality) held within the Venice International Film Festival – is set to unspool between 26 August and 6 September on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. The selection of works taking part in this line-up created in 2017 was announced yesterday, including all kinds of creative, XR means of expression: immersive videos, virtual and mixed reality, virtual worlds and immersive installations.

Venice Immersive will present 69 projects from 27 countries. There’ll be 30 projects in competition, boasting a selection of 21 world premieres and nine international premieres of the best immersive works from around the world. Thirty-four projects will screen out of competition, namely the best works to have been distributed or presented in other festivals following last year’s Venice Film Festival, subdivided into Best of Experiences (11 projects) and Best of Worlds (23 projects), and created by independent artists from all over the world on the VRChat platform, which is an ecosystem of virtual worlds presented through immersive guided tours. Last but not least, five projects developed within Biennale College Cinema – Immersive will grace the agenda: one project made with a grant awarded during the ninth edition and four projects developed within previous editions of the international workshop.

The International Jury of Venice Immersive 2025 is led by Eliza McNitt (USA), a writer, director and a pioneer in immersive storytelling who won the award for Best VR at the 75th Venice Film Festival. She’s supported by Gwenael François (France/Luxembourg), a director, producer and co-founder of the Skill Lab studio in Luxembourg, and Boris Labbé (France), who directed the animated movie Ito Meikyū and whose first work featuring virtual reality (produced by Sacrebleu Productions and Les Films Fauves) won the Venice Immersive Grand Prize in the 81st Venice Film Festival.

The fourth edition of the Venice Immersive Market (VIM, running from 28 August-3 September), which is unfolding within the Venice Production Bridge initiative, will also take place on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. VIM events include the presentation of immersive projects from the Venice Gap-Financing Market and from the Biennale College Cinema Immersive initiative by way of one-to-one meetings; presentations and networking events dedicated to specialised themes; an exhibition space for institutions and public and private funds sponsoring VR/XR/AR projects, producers, and companies specialising in production, distribution, sales, special effects and post-production vis-a-vis immersive content.

The island will also be hosting a series of events, including Venice Production Bridge Panels and Cocktails. Participants can also visit international pavilions where they can try out immersive experiences and projects for themselves, meet representatives of companies interested in the sector, and engage with their services.

The VPB focuses of 2025 are the UK, with the support of the British Film Institute; Chile, with support from the Chilean government’s Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage; and Morocco, with support from the Moroccan Film Centre.

The island will also provide a meeting place for the teams (producers and creators) behind the immersive projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market. These 14 Immersive Story projects (11 European and three from around the world) are comprised of fiction, documentary and animation projects, as well as other interactive installation experiences, including the three projects selected for the UK VPB Focus. All of the projects in question have 30% of their budgets guaranteed. These 14 projects will take part in a live pitch in the Immersive Meeting Space on the morning of 29 August. There will also be ten projects which were developed during the ninth edition of the Biennale College Cinema Immersive workshop and which now find themselves in different stages of development, from pre-production through to post-production. The full list of projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market is available on the official website.

Here is the list of works on show in Venice Immersive:

Competition

La magie opéra - Jonathan Astruc (France)
1968 -  Rose Bond (USA)
The Sad Story of the Little Mouse Who Wanted to Become Somebody - Nicolas Bourniquel (France/Germany/Belgium)
Creation of the Worlds - Kristina Buožytė, Vitalijus Žukas (Lithuania)
Face Jumping - Danny Cannizzaro, Samantha Gorman (USA)
8pm and the Cat - Minhyuk Che (South Korea)
The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up - Singing Chen (Taipei/Germany)
Dark Rooms - Mads Damsbo, Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup (Denmark/Germany/Taipei)
The Great Orator - Daniel Ernst (Netherlands)
Heartbeat – Son Cœur a Trouvé sa Cadence dans le Silence des Rencontres - Fanny Fortage (France)
The Big Cube - Menghui Huang (Finland/Belgium/China/Portugal)
Mulan2125 - Mo Huang (China)
Mirage - Naima Karim, Aleena Hanif (Saudi Arabia/Netherlands/Bosnia and Herzegovina/UK)
Reflections of Little Red Dot - Chloé Lee (Germany/USA)
The Shadow - Blanca Li, Edith Canat de Chizy (France/Taipei)
Asteroid - Doug Liman (USA/Canada)
The Time Before - Leo Metcalf, Michael Golembewski (UK)
Dance Dance Dance – Matisse - Agnès Molia, Gordon (France)
Less Than 5gr of Saffron - Négar Motevalymeidanshah (France)
Empathy Creatures - Mélodie Mousset (Switzerland)
The Exploding Girl VR - Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel (France)
Blur - Craig Quintero, Phoebe Greenberg (Canada/Taipei)
Black Cats & Chequered Flags - Elisabetta Rotolo, Siobhan McDonnell (Italy)
Eddie and I - Maya Shekel (Israel/Germany/France)
Collective Body - Sarah Silverblatt‑Buser (France/USA)
Alien Perspective - Jung Ah Suh, Cristina Rambaldi (USA/Italy)
The Great Escape - Joren Vandenbroucke (Belgium/Luxembourg)
A Long Goodbye - Kate Voet, Victor Maes (Belgium)
If You See a Cat - Atsushi Wada (Japan)
Sense of Nowhere - Hsin‑Hsuan Yeh (Taipei/Finland/Belgium/Portugal/France) 

Out of Competition

Best of Experiences

Wall Town Wonders - Ives Agemans (Belgium)
Submerged - Apple (USA)
Adventure: Ice Dive - Apple and Atlantic Studios (USA/Iceland)
One True Path, Part 1 - Balthazar Auxietre (France)
Ghost Town - Fireproof Games (UK)
Ancestors - Steye Hallema (Netherlands)
Lili - Navid Khonsari, Vassiliki Khonsari (USA)
On the Other Earth - Wayne McGregor (UK)
The Midnight Walk - Olov Redmalm, Klaus Lyngeled (Sweden/Brazil/India)
D‑Day: The Camera Soldier - Chloé Rochereuil (France/USA)
Constantinopoliad - Sister Sylvester, Nadah El Shazly (UK/Greece)

Best of Worlds

Natura’s Queendom - Anders Fray, Starheart
Cyberlove ｜ A7 - Artsy Glitch
Uncanny Lounge - Christopher Lane Davis, Rick Treweek
Ritual - DrMorro
The Colony – Flat 804 - Glory Nya
Exhibition ⁄ Back Seeing - haruki_haru
What Is Virtual Art – Volume 1 - Jessien
The Reality of Hope - Joe Hunting
Neuron - Juice…
Yorutouge - mikkabouzu / Kikuo
Flat Earth - Niko Lang
Experience - NOOTAU
Powdergame - Pema Malling
Light Aquarium - phi16
Break 15˸ Arcanum - PK / rekluma
Vent. - Premium²
FZMZ Point Zero - ReeeznD
Scale Journey - S_Asagiri
Shinonome Balloon - sakanaplus
Dracula’s Castle - Tanner White
Mirage - Tokyo Waiyoz
Neoworlds - Widget365
Flashing Warning - xlxx