NewImages Festival: The winners are….

The 4th edition of NewImages Festival winners were announced. This year was quite unique as The biggest players on the XR market NewImages Festival, Cannes XR and the Tribeca Festival joined forces in order to bring in front of the public the best of the best production (around fifty works in virtual reality including many world premieres, resulting from the expertise and curation of each event to explore the field of immersive arts. ) through XR3 platform.

So, the Winners are:

Golden Mask – Grand Prize

WE ARE AT HOME
directed by: Michelle Kranot, Uri Kranot. Produced by: Late Love Production, Floréal Films, Miyu Distribution, NFB (Canada, Denmark, France). This multi-user installation is based on the poem The Hangman at Home (C. Sandburg) and explores the theme of acknowledgement and the awkward intimacy that comes with being human.

XR Competition Special Jury Prize – VR

REEDUCATED
Director: Sam Wolson, Produced by: The New Yorker & Dirt Empire (US). Get inside a “reeducation” camp in China, in what is likely the largest mass-internment of ethnic and religious minorities since the Second World War

XR Competition Special Jury Prize – VR

STRANDS OF MIND
Director: Adrian Meyer & Laura Messner. Produced by: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Explore a world full of mystery, of beauty and darkness. Let yourself be taken on a trip into the woven nature of existence.

XR Competition Special Jury Prize – AR

ACQUA ALTA – CROSSING THE MIRROR by Adrien Mondot & Claire Bardainne.
A pop-up book whose drawings and paper volumes are the décor of a story, visible in AR. Drawings and folded paper reveal the virtual life of a woman, a man, a house.

The UniFrance / NewImages Festival Export grant

BIOLUM by Abel Kohen, Jon Rowe. Produced by: Reynard Films & Prefontal Cortex (France, Germany)
An interactive, narrative VR sci-fi experience that immerses you in the mysterious beauty of deep sea life on a dive that takes a shocking turn for the worse.

XR Financing Market

NewImages Best Pitch Award 2021:
Lumières By Agnès Bovet-Pavy;
Jean-Baptiste Marot; Fabien Bourdier Produced by Alexandre Cornu; Voyelle Acker and Vincent Guttmann (Small Creative)

Taiwan XR Residency winner

ENCOUNTERS
Mathieu Pradat
SoWhen? – Digital Art Studio & La prairie productions
In partnership with Bureau Français de Taipei – 法國在台協會 et le 高雄電影節 Kaohsiung Film Festival

* 17 experience were presented in the context of the XR competition, out of which 9 World Premieres. Curious to read about the experiences? You can find HERE the short description.

The XR Competition Jury

In order to reward the very best of international immersive creation (VR, AR), NewImages Festival has put together a prestigious jury made up of four artists coming from different horizons, and their own bold and eclectic paths. Through their complementary approaches and sensibilities, they will be able to take a unique and extremely enriching look at the 2021 selection.

Claude Barras, Swiss director and producer
Claude Barras is a director of animated films, script collaborator and producer. He directed a dozen animated short films, selected and lauded in several festival. Amongst a multitude of prizes, his first feature film My Life as a Courgette, cowritten with Céline Sciamma, won two César in 2017, including the one for best animated film.
SAVAGES! his second feature is currently under production.

Claude Barras, Swiss director and producer
Claude Barras is a director of animated films, script collaborator and producer. He directed a dozen animated short films, selected and lauded in several festival. Amongst a multitude of prizes, his first feature film My Life as a Courgette, cowritten with Céline Sciamma, won two César in 2017, including the one for best animated film.
SAVAGES! his second feature is currently under production.

Yael Naim, French-Israeli musician, producer and director
Yael Naim has made a dramatic entrance into the music industry with the song New Soul. After this initial success, she patiently built a life as a musician, producer, director and visual artist alongside her artistic partner and producer David Donatien. Three of her albums were rewarded with a “Victoire de la musique”. NightSongs, her last opus, was released in March 2020. Her collaborations extend to visual arts (a clip by Stromae, performances by Yoann Bourgeois, Raphaël Navarro) and to cinema for film music (Lisa Azuelos, Jill Coulon).

Bertrand Mandico, French author and filmmaker
His movies, shot exclusively on film, were selected and rewarded in several film festivals. In 2017, The Wild Boys, his first feature film, was acclaimed by critics and audiences, and awarded the Louis Delluc Prize. Bertrand Mandico is currently preparing the transmedia project Conan the Barbarian at the Amandiers Theatre, blending cinema with theatre and performances as well as a fantasy TV series.

Selly Raby Kane, Senegalese designer and director
As a fashion designer, Selly Raby Kane shakes up the codes and trends of Senegalese fashion. She created her eponymous brand, lend her style to several icons such as Beyoncé and collaborated with IKEA for the Överallt collection. Then, she carried out Elsewhen, a science-fiction project that explores the continent’s future through virtual reality and digital media, as well as her first VR film, The Other Dakar, which pays tribute to Senegalese mythology.

The XR Competition was also be available online this year, with the XR3 exhibition, co-organized by NewImages Festival, Cannes XR and the Tribeca Festival, but also in over twenty satellite venues throughout the world!

The works in competition: The 2021 Selection

Friday the 11^th of June marking the end of the Industry Days, the NewImages Festival jury awarded:

• the Golden Prize (Grand Prize, 6 000€)
• the Special Jury Prize  – VR (3 000€)
• the Special Jury Prize  – AR (3 000€)