Paris-based XR distributor Diversion Cinema will partner with the Cannes Film Festival to oversee this year’s inaugural Immersive Competition. A specialist in location-based exhibition, Diversion will handle technical duties for the 14 immersive experiences spread across the competitive and non-competitive sections.
Running concurrent to the film event, Cannes’ immersive showcase will spread out across 700 sq. m. at the Cineum – a multiscreen multiplex about three miles from the Palais that has served as an official festival site since 2021 – while Diversion will have a staff of eight welcoming festival attendees each and every day.
“Providing for festivals like Cannes is part of our DNA,” says Diversion founder Camille Lopato. “Cannes was one of our first clients when we started our business back in 2016. Back then, it was among the first A-class festival to screen VR with such ambition, and this year Cannes is back with a vengeance, with a very fine and ambitious selection of immersive creations with a particular on multiplayer experiences.”
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“We’re thrilled to help the Cannes Film Festival open up to festival-goers who aren’t necessarily accustomed to VR,” Lopato continues. “We hope that in some way we could further ignite the creativity of this industry.”
Before taking to the Croisette, Diversion will be a major player at this year’s NewImages Festival, which runs April 24 – 28 in Paris. The XR distributor has already scooped up the NewImages competition title “Over the Rainbow,” which uses 360 VR and immersive theater to explore questions of dreams and desire, and will also be present as a buyer at the NewImages Market – the industry’s biggest wholly immersive-oriented market.
“We’ll be there for both acquisitions and sales,” says Lopato. “When we talk to cultural institutions, we want to offer them works that correspond to their audience, their theme, their current issues. And so, for our own acquisition strategy, we’re looking for works that tell a story. It sounds silly, but telling a story corresponds to our vision of the world is truly important.”
