A highly original press conference was organised by Unifrance in order to present the 3rd edition of the no-less-innovative European film festival, MyMetaStories, backed by Creative Europe. The occasion saw journalists discovering the immersive universe created inside of Minecraft (the most popular video game in the world, boasting the biggest community) where the event will unfold between 10 and 12 October, in parallel with its more traditional online iteration, which will continue until 2 November across more than 30 partner VoD platforms (including Apple TV+, Google TV and Prime Video) and on the video sharing platforms YouTube and Dailymotion.

Featuring Federico Fellini’s Trevi Fountain, the Lumière brothers’ Ciotat railway station, and Sergueï Eisenstein’s pram falling down the Potemkim Stairs, but also references to Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and Persona, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, without forgetting the cat in Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Gints Zilbalodis
intervista: Red Carpet @ European Film…
scheda film] or Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, this world crafted specially for Minecraft is peppered with upwards of twenty clues and clearly revolves around the virtual multiscreen cinema where 12 short films are set to be screened (at set times). En route to their séance, gamers are invited to take part in mini-games inspired by works featuring within the selection, and to complete a side quest based around the major phases involved in creating a film (with fun islands representing screenplay writing, funding, filming, post-production, promotion and distribution, etc.).

There are two new additions spicing up this year’s programme: the first four episodes of the animated series Samuel (which has already racked up over 50 million views and was created by Émilie Tronche and produced for Arte by Les Valseurs) and the trailer for Sylvain Chomet’s animated feature film A Magnificent Life [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sylvain Chomet
scheda film] (unveiled in the most recent Cannes Film Festival), which will be distributed in several European countries during MyMetaStories (which is trying its hand at playing a direct, promotional springboard role, linking the virtual world with the real world of movie theatres).

Devised with a view to building a bridge between the video game and cinema worlds in order to promote cinema-going and European films to gamers and young audiences by leveraging off of their habits and their universe, the Minecraft approach proved its worth during the festival’s first two editions, which saw more than 80% of players watching at least one film. Its impact was enhanced thanks to the support of over 25 influencers (who were big names in the Minecraft world and content creators specialising in film) which ensured live streams on Twitch. Three subtitling languages (English, Spanish and French) are also available for these short films.

As for the online version of the festival (running 10 October to 2 November), 12 short films and six features are scheduled to grace the agenda. Accessible in six subtitled languages (German, English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese), the latter are Little Jaffna [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lawrence Valin
scheda film] by French director Lawrence Valin (discovered in Venice’s International Critics’ Week), Silver Star [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by his US-based peers Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis, Breaking The Ice [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Austria’s Clara Stern (unveiled in Tribeca), Heads or Fails [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lenny e Harpo Guit
scheda film] by Belgian filmmakers Lenny and Harpo Guit, U Are the Universe [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Pavlo Ostrikov
scheda film] by Ukraine’s Pavlo Ostrikov (screened in Toronto) and the animated movie Living Large [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kristina Dufková
scheda film] by Czech director Kristina Dufková (awarded Annecy’s Contrechamp Jury Prize).