NoPro's Katrina Lat is on assignment at the Venice Immersive section of the 2026 Venice Film Festival. Her mission: to catch as many of the  68 projects – 30 in competition, 35 in the Best of Immersive section, and 3 in the Biennale College Cinema - Immersive section as possible.

We believe in Kat.

What follows are her initial reactions in video form, in the order that she's taken on the projects on. Look for a final wrap-up at the end of the festival!

Our Venice Immersive 2026 Coverage:

DAY ONE

Sunset Motel

Director: Gilles Jobin
Switzerland; 20 minutes; In Competition

From the official synopsis:

Sunset Motel is an immersion into the world of illustrator and scratchboard master Thomas Ott. His elaborate characters and scenery come to life through motion capture when set in movement by choreographer Gilles Jobin. 

Library of Dreams

Directors:  Jane Rzheznikova, Alina Mikhaleva Savelyeva
Germany, Israel; 25 minutes; Biennale College Cinema - Immersive

From the official synopsis:

Library of Dreams is an interactive narrative VR experience exploring how the human psyche responds to life under political pressure.

Raj’in (We Shall Return)

Director:  Faiz Abu Rmeleh, Keren Manor
Germany, Palestine; 24 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Filmed over three years, We Shall Return documents Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank through the stories of over 11 Palestinian communities facing forcible transfer, using a visceral blend of 360° cinematography and raw phone and handycam footage filmed by Palestinian residents and activists. 

Empire At Sea

Director: Peter Flaherty
USA; 22 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Empire At Sea is a Solarpunk AR drama about a group of climate scientists who move to a remote oil rig for their summer sabbatical to attempt to create a sustainable city at sea. Halfway through the summer, the big one hits and wipes out the mainland.

Ôl (Haunts)

Director:  Lucy Hammond, Tomos Chetwode-Barton
Wales (United Kingdom); 15 minutes

From the official synopsis:

It’s 2006 in a small North Wales town, and 16-year-old Morgan stands on the edge of his future. He guides us through familiar haunts, late-night hangouts and moments that linger long after the last bus leaves. 

Yesterday Maybe

Director:  Matthieu Van Eeckhout
France; 16 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Yesterday Maybe evokes the suspended moments following the announcement of a loved one’s death, when reality falters and the mind struggles to grasp the irreversible.

Outrenoir

Director:  Gordon
France; 12 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Through multifaceted experimentation, walnut stain, oil paint, acrylic, and glass were the materials Pierre Soulages, one of the most celebrated artists of his generation, tirelessly confronted, until the emergence of his famous Outrenoir at the age of sixty, midway through his career. It was then that the canvas became a space where the artist worked with house painter’s tools, striating, gouging, and smoothing the surface to endlessly play with the light and reflections he so loved to create.

Out of the Ashes

Directors: Rory Mitchell, Nonny de la Peña
USA; 26 Minutes

Official synopsis:

On January 7, 2025, wildfires fueled by 100 mph winds tore through Los Angeles, scorching 40,000 acres, destroying 16,000 homes, and displacing more than 100,000 people. But statistics cannot measure the loss of a hand-painted red front door, an antique violin or a child’s bedroom. Out of the Ashes uses cutting-edge spatial technology to document the devastation and the human stories within it.

The seven vignettes in Out of the Ashes are synecdoches for so many others, describing the memories of the lives lived in those homes, births celebrated, grief and family members mourned. The destruction captured in this documentary begs the audience to ask, “What place was this? What people lived here?” and “What will come from OUT OF THE ASHES?”

In 36,000 Ways

Director:  Karim Ben Khelifa
Germany; 3 minutes

Official synopsis:

In this intimate, site-specific variation of his ongoing project, Karim Ben Khelifa shifts the experience of war from cognition to embodiment. Inside a solitary booth, a shard of missile shrapnel from Ukraine’s frontline is presented to the visitor. As each person enters, their presence is detected and physiological signals captured non-invasively, translated into a low-frequency soundscape, where the visitor’s own heartbeat becomes a quiet, persistent rhythm of resilience within the wreckage.

Octopocalypse

Directors: Max Sacker, Arite Szadkowski
Germany; 20 minutes

From the official synopsis:

What would you do if you met an alien intelligence with power to shape humanity’s future? Three participants enter an interrogation room after a meteor storm has almost destroyed civilisation. Before them is an alien octopus: fragile, prophetic, curious, and possibly able to help humanity rebuild. Its attempts at contact arrive through music, touch, rhythm and visions that can be progressive, terrifying or intimate.

Everest: The First Ascent

Directors: Jean Dellac, Benjamin Auriche
France; 37 minutes

From the official synopsis:

1953. A British expedition sets out to conquer Everest, a legendary summit that no one has ever reached. Today, you are part of the team. Tenzing Norgay, leader of the Sherpas, guides you through an adventure that will make History. 

Shifting Connections

Director: Tungyen Chou
Taipei; 12 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Shifting Connections is a collective immersive experience that invites participants to step through a threshold into a shared virtual world. Bodies appear as glowing points and connecting lines, forming living constellations shaped by movement and proximity.

Solwata

Directors: Felix Gaedtke, Gayatri Parameswaran
United States, Germany, Solomon Islands; 25 minutes

Official Synopsis:

Narrated by Mark Ruffalo, Solwata is a mixed reality installation exploring rising seas in the Solomon Islands due to climate change. Interacting with water and artifacts, audiences enter the vibrant world of the Solwata, or saltwater, people. Using 360° video, Gaussian splats, and 3D animations, participants join Martha, Francis, and Lawrence as they protect their homes and heritage amidst displacement and planned relocation to the mainland. Solwata transforms an abstract threat into a visceral experience of cultural resilience and the loss of home.

Bowie: Unseen | Unheard

Directors: Denis O’Regan, Nick Ryan, Joe Crossley
United Kingdom; 25 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Bowie: Unseen | Unheard: an immersive audio-visual experience that reimagines the photographic archive of legendary music photographer Denis O’Regan, featuring more than 800 iconic, rare and previously unseen images spanning two decades of David Bowie’s extraordinary career, the project invites audiences to step beyond the photograph and into the emotional atmosphere of these moments, accompanied by the photographer’s commentary.

Nothing To See Here

Director: Celine Daeman
The Netherlands; 8 minutes

From the official synopsis:

Nothing to see here opens a window to a small alternative reality. Placed in liminal public spaces, it invites casual passers-by to peer through the peepholes of a box-shaped diorama.

DAY TWO

The Pigeon Ring

Directors: Yuqi Zhang, Shixin Tao
China; 35 minutes

Official Synopsis:

Lyn gives in to her aging grandfather’s stubborn wish and accompanies him back to a long abandoned family home in search of a missing pigeon leg band. As they search through the old rooms, fragments of the family’s past begin to surface, revealing another side of him, one buried deep within memory, obsession, and unspoken regret.

More to come...

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