Virtual-Reality Film Festival to Hit 10 Cities in North America

Todd Spangler

Virtual-reality filmmakers are getting their own 10-city festival showcasing their work in the nascent field.

The Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival will feature demos of about 20 short films from filmmakers around the world, including the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea and Czech Republic. The fest is produced by San Francisco-based Kaleidoscope VR, a talent agency dedicated to virtual reality founded in May 2015 entrepreneur René Pinnell and former Industrial Light & Magic technical director Michael Breymann.

The festival kicks off Aug. 22 in Portland, traveling to nine other cities across North America: Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Montreal, Toronto, New York City and Austin, Texas. The Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival also will include talks by top VR filmmakers and industry members, while letting attendees experience the films on equipment supplied by Samsung and Facebook’s Oculus VR.

“We have seen the gaming industry embrace virtual reality, and now the film industry is on the verge of the same breakthrough,” Kaleidoscope VR’s Pinnell said in a statement, noting that major film festivals including Cannes, Sundance and Tribeca recently have featured VR projects.

The festival’s premiere sponsor is Vrideo, a VR streaming-video startup, with others including Samsung, Altspace VR and Condition One.

Tickets for the Kaleidoscope Film Festival are available for $15 ($10 for students), with a $99 VIP pass that lets holders skip to the front of the line for any VR demo.

Films in the 2015 festival are slated to include the following:

  • “Butts” (U.S.), directed by Tyler Hurd (pictured above)

  • “Bright Shadows” (U.S.), directed by Michael Catalano

  • “Clouds Over Sidra” (U.S.), directed by Chris Milk and Gabo Arora

  • “Colosse” (Israel, U.K., U.S.), produced by Joseph Chen

  • “Der Grosse Gottlieb” (Netherlands), directed by Daniël Ernst

  • “DMZ: Memories of a No Man’s Land” (South Korea), directed by Hayoun Kwon

  • “Evolution of Verse” (U.S.), directed by Chris Milk

  • “The Last Mountain” (U.S.), directed by Avram Dodson

  • “LOVR” (U.K.), directed by Aaron Bradbury

  • “The Archer” (U.S.), directed by Jessica Kantor

  • “The Nepal Quake Project” (U.S.), directed by David Darg

  • “The Night Cafe” (U.S.), directed by Mac Cauley

  • “Sightline: The Chair” (Czech Republic), directed by Tomáš Mariančík

  • “Surge” (Netherlands), directed by Arjan Van Meerten

  • “Tana Pura” (U.S.), directed by Mike Tucker

  • “Way to Go” (Canada), directed by Vincent Morisset

  • “Welcome to Aleppo” (U.S.), directed by Christian Stephen

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