Atlas V Launches International Sales, Distribution Activities for VR Content (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy

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Atlas V, the leading French VR production company behind the Venice-competing “BattleScar,” “Gloomy Eyes” and “Ex Anima Experience,” is getting ready to diversify with the launch of international sales and distribution activities.

Boasting of the largest libraries of premium VR, 360 and immersive content in Europe, Atlas V will distribute those three Venice titles along with “Ayahuasca” and “Vestige” in location-based venues around the world, including at Montreal’s Centre Phi, Paris’s Galerie Cinema, New York’s VR Bar and Taiwan’s VR theater, which soon will be opened by HTC.

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“We started handling international sales on some of our titles and saw that there was a market and an audience for them, so it made us want to invest more,” said Antoine Cayrol, co-founder of Atlas V with Pierre Zandrowicz, Arnaud Colinart and Fred Volhuer.

“Digital distribution is a key to pre-financing our content, but distribution in location-based venues is another crucial activity and we want to develop it,” said Cayrol, citing Rockefeller Center in New York, on top of the Centre Phi and the Galerie Cinema as places eager to showcase premium content.

Atlas V will also be looking to represent third-party content in international markets and to produce more linear and narrative content like Pedro Casavecchia’s animated short “Pulsion,” which was the company’s first non-immersive production and won a prize at Annecy.

The executive said Atlas V has also started to develop animated TV series and films. “The tools like Unreal and Unity, which we’ve been using for two years for our content, are now being used by animation producers to control costs and have greater control over the creative process,” said Cayrol.

Zandrowicz and Bartabas directed “Ex Anima Experience,” while Martin Allais and Nico Casavecchia helmed “BattleScar”; Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado directed “Gloomy Eyes.” Since bowing in Dec. 2017, Atlas V productions have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto and Venice, among other festivals.

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