Tofuzi Animation Film Festival
x Institut Français de Géorgie:
Best of French VR
Batumi Art Teaching University, 27-28 October 2022
ბათუმის ხელოვნების სასწავლო უნივერსიტეტი,
27-28 ოქტომბერი 2022
To promote and introduce the new form of art which combines culture and technology, the French Institute of Georgia, Film XR Company, VREX Interactive and Animation Development Fund are organizing "Best of French VR" showcase within the 14th International Festival of Animated Films "TOFUZI" on 27-28th October 2000 in the city of Batumi, capital of Adjara, Georgia.
VR and XR projects have become a big part of the cinema and art industry.

Most prestigious international film festivals like Cannes, Venice, Tribeca, South by SouthWest and many more introduced VR as a part of an official film competition of their program. France is the leading country supporting and promoting the best in new interactive digital media, especially VR, AR and XR.



The French Institute of Paris launched the Culture VR initiative, aimed at international promotion of the renowned French XR projects, bringing the best of VR in animation, documentary, fiction, art, and live concerts to countries around the globe.
"The French Institute of Georgia is delighted to present Cinematic XR to students, amateurs and professionals of the "Seventh art" in beautiful Batumi. Indeed, the French Institute attaches great importance to the artistic creation and sincerely encourages artists to assert their uniqueness through the art. The showcase that we make available with the support of our head office in Paris aims to reveal the best of French XR creations and the great diversity of the animation genre.

Moreover, we are extremely happy that the Tofuzi international animated films festival, our long-time and widely known partner, is integrating VR cinema into its rich program this year. We hope that all the amateurs and festival guests will enjoy the best of French XR (AR/VR) creations presented at the Batumi Art Teaching University, from October 27th to 28th, 2022".



Camille Nora
director of the French Institute of Georgia
"TOFUZI" International Animated Film Festival is organized by N.(N).L.E. Animation Development Fund, N.(N).L.E. Personage, N.(N).L.E. Projection. All three organizations have equal rights, can act and perform as the festival owners.

The Festival consist of 2 main parts:
"TOFUZI" International Animated Film Festival which will be held in Batumi.
The Regional Festival "TOFUZI" will be held in about 20 regions of Georgia during the whole year after the International Festival of Animated Films "TOFUZI".
Festival web-site: https://adf.ge/


Program curated by XR Director and producer Giorgi Molodtsov consists of both interactive and non-interactive projects - winners of the most prestigious international festivals. Among those are projects like "Gloomy Eyes" narrated by Hollywood actor Colin Farrell, winner of the Annecy Film Festival and SXSW Festival. Many works deal with the creative and technological interpretation of classic art pieces - "L'ile des Morts", "Un Bar aux Folies Bergère", "Le Cri" and "1, 2, 3 Bruegel" would be of interest for classic art lovers.
360 Films
PLANET ∞
2017, France, 6 min
Director Momoko Seto
Production ARTE France, Barberousse Films, Awkeye avec la participation du CNC
In a world in ruins, only fungi and mold grow in the middle of gigantic dried insects bodies.
When a weather change occurs, rain irrigates the arid planet and floods it gradually. In the water springs an ecosystem, populated by giant carnivorous tadpoles.

FNC Explore Films 2017 VIRTUAL REALITY - AUDIENCE AWARD
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2017 - OFFICIAL SELECTION

Trailer
Un Bar aux Folies Bergère
2018, France, 6 min
Director Gabrielle Lissot
Production IKO, ARTE
A four-acts immersion into Manet's famous painting.
A Bar at the Folies Bergère takes us into the head, the eyes and thoughts of Manet's painting four characters. The narration, charged with emotion, has been created, co-written and adapted by Gabrielle Lissot, a prize-winning animation director (Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, pre-selection for the Césars). Beyond the documentary aspect, the project intends to reflect and to show the ambivalence of the Belle Époque and the sophistication of a masterwork whose interpretation is still a mystery.
Trailer
L'île des morts
2017, France, 7 min
Director Benjamin Nuel
Production Les Produits Frais (Oriane Hurard), ARTE France
A timeless journey, based on Arnold Böcklin's painting.
Isle of the Dead is a timeless journey, starting from an everyday apartment towards our final destination, guided by Charon, ferryman of the Underwor- ld. This VR experience is a loose recreation of the eponymous work painted in 1883 by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin.
The famous masterpiece also inspired a symphonic poem by Rachmaninov, which makes a perfect soundtrack to accompany the experience.
Best Story in VR Venice Film Festival (Italie) 2018
Best Virtual Reality Short Film China International New Media Short Film Festival (Chine) 2018
Prix du public Entrevues Belfort (France) 2018
Special Jury VR award FilmGate Miami (États-Unis) 2018

Trailer
Sergent James
2017, France, 7 min
Director Alexandre Perez
Production Floréal Films (Avi Amar)
A new immersive experience combining fantasy with reality.

It is Leo's bedtime. When his mum goes to switch off the light, the little boy thinks there is something under his bed... Leo: Will you leave the light on, please? Mummy: Why, darling? Leo: I... I think there is something under my bed…
Tribeca Film Festival 2017
Cannes NEXT 2017
FNC Explore 2017 - Virtual Reality
BIFAN 2018 Beyond Reality


Trailer
Interactive Films
Le Cri VR
2018, France, 15 min
Director Sandra Paugam & Charles Ayats
Production Cinétévé Expérience et ARTE France, en partenariat avec Backlight Studio. Avec le soutien du Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée, et de la région Provence- Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
A documentary experience bringing Edvard Munch's thoughts and demons to life.

This virtual reality experience uses The Scream as a launching pad, explo- ring the painter's deepest obsessions in an audio-visual staging of the most famous scream in the history of art. It all starts in a museum hall, where the viewer is free to walk around and interact. But as he turns his gaze to the painting, he is thrust into another world, an imaginary sensory-packed world. A universe on the outskirts of reality that taps into the painter's psyche and unfolds in three chapters.


Trailer
1, 2, 3 Bruegel
2018, France, 15 min

Director Gordon & Andrès Jarach
Production Camera lucida productions, ARTE France
1, 2, 3 Bruegel !, a playful VR experience into Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting "Children's Games".

1, 2, 3 Bruegel ! is an entertaining VR experience in 3D Real-time into the mysterious Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting "Children's Games": A game of hide and seek where your mission will be to find the 200 children hidden in the city. The painting is no longer a painting but a model game in which you can walk around and act upon.







Trailer
Gloomy Eyes
2019, France & Argentine, 29 min
Director Jorge Tereso & Fernando Maldonado
Production Atlas, V Arte, 3Dar

When the sun got tired of humans and decided to hide and never rise again, darkness awoke the dead from their graves. Since then, the clash between man and zombie sets the pace of daily life. Narrated by Colin Farrell, "Gloomy Eyes" is an animated trilogy and emotional tale where fantastical animated dioramas twist and rotate around you. Chase the nostalgic and heartwarming story of a zombie boy, Gloomy, and a human girl, Nena, that dare to play with love. Their star-crossed love might just be the last seed of hope.

Annecy 2019 - CRISTAL DE LA MEILLEURE ŒUVRE VR
SXSW 2019 - PRIX DU JURY POUR LA NARRATION
Infinity Film Festival 2019 - AWARD OF VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE
New Images 2019 - MASQUE D'OR

Trailer
Lady Sapiens
2021, France, 12 min
Director Camille Duvelleroy
Production Lucid Realities Ubisoft, Little Big Stories France Télévisions


You are Lady Sapiens, you were born 38,000 years ago.
You are experiencing the place of women in the clan, but that's not the end of the story. No, women were not out picking while men were hunting. The Director Camille Duvelleroy imagined a virtual reality experience bases on the most recent scientific discoveries, evolving in a sumptuous graphic universe designed by Ubisoft. Lady Sapiens, the experience offers a journey through time in the body of a Sapiens woman.

PiXii Festival - Grand Prix - 2021
Sandbox Immersive Festival - Best Immersive Experience - 2021



Trailer
Battlescar
2018, France, 31 min
Director Nico Casavecchia & Martin Allais
Production Atlas V, Albyon, Arte France, 1st Ave Machine, in association with Kaleidoscope


Join Lupe and Debbie, two runaways who's adventures in starting a punk rock band take them to places they never expected.

Battlescar is a three-part VR series that invites you to dive into the grungy punk world of teenage runaways, Lupe and Debbie. Lupe, a Puerto Rican American 16-year-old, meets Debbie in the cell of

a juvenile detention center. Debbie will introduce Lupe to the punk rock scene of the Lower East Side and the secret worlds of Alphabet City. Filmed in 6 degrees of freedom, Battlescar has optical tracking systems that footprint specific points on your headset in 3D space - meaning you will navigate the Battlescar universe as if you were a punk kid on the streets of New York in late '70's.
Trailer
A Fisherman's Tale
2018, France, 12 min
Director Balthazar Auxietre & Alexis Morozt
Production Innerspace VR, ARTE



"A Fisherman's Tale" is a story-driven puzzle game for VR, inspired

by nautical legends and lore, escape rooms, and mind-bending games.

Playing as Bob, a tiny fisherman puppet, you live alone in your tiny cabin, oblivious to the world outside. When your radio broadcasts a storm alert, you have to get to the top of the lighthouse and turn on the light! But as you try to leave your cabin you realize what's waiting outside is not at all what you expected.




Trailer
Special Presentation
In addition to the program, provided by Institut Francais de Georgie within the "Selection VR" and "Novembre Numerique" initiative, festival goers would be able to exclusively experience immersive animated music concert "OXYMORE" by famous French musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre. The project, co-produced between France, Italy and Georgia would have a premiere a few days before the festival and Tofuzi visitors were among the first to experience the full version of it.
OXYMORE by Jean-Michel Jarre
Interactive Music Experience
2022, France, Georgia, Italy, 50 min
Director Georgy Molodtsov
Art director Pavel Pavlyukov
Production VRrOOm
The latest music creation of Jean-Michel Jarre takes place in Oxyville, a virtual city inspired by iconic musical instruments of the earliest stages of electronic music and an homage to Pierre Henry.

Webby Award Nominee & Honoree 2022
Crystal Owl Award for Best Art Design
Raindance Immersive Nominee 2022


Trailer


"Film and Art industry worldwide is benefitting from technological advancement. With this showcase we want the audience to see VR not only as a technology for gamers and geeks, but as an equal form of art, which takes the best from both Culture and Technology. We hope that this showcase would be a good start to promote VR in Georgia and make innovation more familiar to the audience"

Giorgi Molodtsov
Showcase curator and director of OXYMORE project
Content Partners:
About the organisers:

Tofuzi Animation Film Festival x French Institute of Georgia: Best of French VR
Project Team – Film XR:
Curator – Giorgi Molodtsov
Technical Director - Vlad Maleev
VR Engineer - Dmitry Burdyukov

XR Curator: Giorgi Molodtsov
gmolodtsov@gmail.com / +995599051371

Tofuzi Animation Festival: Archil Diasamidze
tofuzifest@gmail.com
www.adf.ge
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