BATUMI VR DAYS:
INTERACTION XR
Batumi Art Teaching University,
12-14 November 2024
ბათუმის ხელოვნების
სასწავლო უნივერსიტეტი,
12-14 ნოვემბერი 2024
Batumi VR Days is back to captivate audiences at the 16th International Festival of Animated Films "TOFUZI" in beautiful Batumi, Georgia!

ბათუმი VR დღეები ბრუნდება, რათა მოხიბლოს მაყურებელი ანიმაციური ფილმების მე-16 საერთაშორისო ფესტივალ
„თოფუზზე“ !

For the third time, the TOFUZI Animation Festival is thrilled to host a VR section, showcasing some of the world’s best animation projects created using cutting-edge Virtual Reality and immersive tools. From November 12 to 14, festival visitors can explore award-winning interactive experiences and 360° video projects!

მესამედ, თოფუზის ანიმაციური ფესტივალი მასპინძლობს VR პროექტების/ფილმების ჩვენებებს, სადაც წარმოდგენილი იქნება ცნობილი ანიმაციური პროექტები, შექმნილი ვირტუალური რეალობისა და იმერსიული ხელსაწყოებით. 12-დან 14 ნოემბრის ჩათვლით ფესტივალის სტუმრებს შეუძლიათ შეიგრძნონ ინტერაქტიული ინეტრატიული ტექნოლოგიების და 360° ვიდეო პროექტების ხიბლი!




This year Tofuzi became a partner of the Serbian initiative “Interaction XR: Co-creating Future” financed by the Visegrad Fund, which includes series of master classes about immersive technologies for filmmakers from experts from Hungary, Poland, and Georgia, as well as the major part – VR Exhibition at the Batumi Art Teaching University.

The project is curated by Georgy Molodtsov, founder of FIlm XR
Batumi VR Days x Interaction XR is a project run by IFC Filmart and N.(N).L.E. Personage which contributes to the intercultural dialogue between youth living in the V4 countries (Poland, Hungary), EaP countries (Georgia), Western Balkans region (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and Estonia through XR. The project establishes and fosters cooperation among different regions through common cultural activities in VR worlds and contributes to international audience development.
The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

INTERACTION XR PROGRAM
Presented by Visegrad Fund:
Darkening
Ondřej Moravec
Czech Republic, Germany | 2022 | 25 min
How is the world perceived by someone with depression? The animated immersive film uses virtual reality to address depression and the ways to cope with it. Director and protagonist, Ondřej, guides us through diverse landscapes associating the story of his struggle with depression since puberty.
We share his feelings during his first depressive episodes: on a family trip in his childhood, at university while striving for perfect results, at work in his everyday struggles with depressive ‘darkening’.

Through animation, combining a stylized form of Ondřej’s environment and abstract images of his emotions, the viewers will experience and understand what it is like to live with this illness, how to tackle it and what mechanisms are used by people with depression to feel better. Most of the interactions are voice-controlled. The main character Ondřej finds out that his tool to get the depression under control is his voice. He uses humming, singing and even shouting as a calming and relieving technique.

Venice Film Festival – Venice Immersive Competition, Italy, 2022 – World Premiere
Stereopsia EUROPE, Belgium, 2022 –Nominated for the Crystal Owl Award
IDFF Ji.hlava Czech Joy Competition, Virtual Reality Competition, 2022
Geneva International Film Festival – International Immersive Works Competition, Switzerland, 2022
Trailer
Missing 10 Hours
Fanni Fazakas
Hungary | 2022 | 16 min
How could it have happened, in a public space and in the company of people who call themselves friends? This is the question that always arises in response to yet another news story about date rape. But rape cases like this often involve more people than just the perpetrator and the victim.

Missing 10 Hours makes us realise how much the decision and actions of bystanders can drastically influence the course of an evening.In this interactive VR piece, the viewer is led on a night out by Greg, a big-headed guy with bad intentions.

He spikes the 22-year-old Mara’s drink with the GHB drug, and she gradually loses control of her actions. A walk through the night ends in a backstreet, where Greg maneuvers Mara into a dark corner. The viewer's choices during the evening – go along with Greg, watch passively or intervene – determine the outcome: a safe ending, or arrest and questioning at the police station.

Raindance Film Festival, UK, 2022
Kaohsiung Film Festival, XR Dreamland – XR Competition, 2023 – XR Immersive Award
FNC Explore, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Canada, 2023
VR Theater, SIGGRAPH, USA, 2023

Trailer
Whispers
Jacek Nagłowski, Patryk Jordanowicz
Poland | 2019 | 21 min
On the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, the pace of life is slow, but underneath the surface of things, its density leads beyond understanding. Here, life and death do not mean the persistence and disappearance of biological processes, they are impenetrable forces that constitute reality. This is where the Whisperers live. They heal people using the power of words, gestures and images. Rough nature, religious ceremonies and pagan rituals are what you will encounter along the path to this state of mind.

  • Venice Film Festival, Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality, 2019
  • Lublin Film Festival, Poland, 2019 – Special Award of Lublin Film Festival
  • 24. European Cinema Forum CINERGIA, Lodz, Poland, 2019 – Special Award for the Best Polish VR in Documentary Category
  • 20. goEast Film Festival, Wiesbaden, Germany 2020 – Open Frame Award
More info
Oneiro
Miloš Tasić
Serbia | 2024 | 7 min 30 sec
Oneiro is an animated movie in virtual reality, which places the viewer directly in the 360-degree environment of the narrative.
The film was made in English and it satirically portrays the interaction of artificial intelligence programmes with the average user, from the perspective of the programme, offering insights into how it perceives humans, their relationship to the planet, and their relationships between themselves.

  • Award in the category for Best Virtual / Augmented Reality (VR & AR) at the Titan International Film Festival in Sydney, Australia – Notification 2024 / Event 2025
  • Award in the category for Best VR and 360 Video Experience at the Castle Film & Media Awards Festival in Rome, Italy, 2024
Trailer
French Institute Program:
MADRID NOIR
dir. James Castillo, Interactive | France | 2021 | 42 min
Presented by Institut Francais de Georgié and ASTREA
A young woman arrives at the apartment of her estranged and deceased uncle. Tasked with picking up the pieces of his life, she is unexpectedly thrown back into the past to relive a summer she spent with him as a child. This will ultimately lead her to uncover a long buried secret.
This animated story takes part in a city that comes alive at night, a place where shadows are dark and deep, a Madrid now lost in time.
EMMY Award Winner
Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual – Best Narrative Experience @ The Webby Awards 2022
Best Narrative Experience @ Crystal Owl Awards – Stereopsia EUROPE 2021
VR AWARDS - VR Experience of the Year
Trailer
EMPEROR
dir. Marion Burger, Ilan Cohen, Interactive | France | 2021 | 42 min
Presented by Institut Francais de Georgié and ASTREA
Emperor is an interactive and narrative experience in virtual reality, which invites the user to travel inside the brain of a father, suffering from aphasia. It is the story of a man who’s lost his ability to speak, and of the daughter trying to communicate with him. It is the story of a woman, who wasn’t given the chance to know the man behind her father, now obscured by this illness.

Venice Immersive Achievement Prize @ La Biennale di Venezia 2023
XR Immersive Award @ Kaohsiung Film Festival – 2024
New Animation Art – Honorary Mention @ Ars Electronica Festival 2024
XR Experience Spotlight – Audience Award Winner @ SXSW 2024
Trailer


"For the third year we are coming to Batumi to present best of XR creative works - and we see how the scope of the project changes through the time. This year is a great example of collaboration between Serbia, Georgia and Visegrad region as we could present here in Batumi works from Eastern European region and we already acquainted Serbian visitors with Georgian VR Works. And we are happy that our long standing partners, Institut Francais de Georgie, helped us to bring wonderful award-winning works to present the whole variety of themes and style existing in a emerging XR medium"
Georgy Molodtsov
VR Program Curator
14.11 / 14:00
Batumi Art Teaching University
Master-classes:
VR and interactive technologies
for creative animation projects

მასტერ-კლასი: VR და ინტერაქტიული ტექნოლოგიების როლი ანიმაციაში
Interactive and XR technologies are not limited to games and entertainment—they can also be powerful tools for traditional filmmaking and immersive storytelling.
In this masterclass, experts from various XR fields will share their insights on tools and solutions you can use to start creating your own film, XR, and AR animation projects.

ინტერაქტიული და XR ტექნოლოგიები არ არის მხოლოდ თამაშებისა და გართობისთვის - ისინი ასევე ძლიერი ინსტრუმენტებია კინოს გადაღებისა და იმერსიული ნარატივისთვის.
მასტერ-კლასზე, სხვადასხვა სფეროს XR ექსპერტები გაგიზიარებენ ცოდნას ინსტრუმენტებსა და გადაწყვეტილებებზე, რომლითაც შეგიძლიათ დაიწყოთ საკუთარი ფილმის, XR და AR ანიმაციური პროექტების შექმნა.
  • Georgy Molodtsov
    LECTURER, CURATOR, Georgia, Serbia
    Georgy Molodtsov is an award-winning XR Director and Producer, as well as Curator and Manager of cultural events using XR and metaverse (including XR Film Festivals, Virtual Events, and Concerts). Member of the Emmy Television Academy – Emerging Media Peer Group.
  • Mitya Sorkin
    LECTURER, Poland
    Mitya Sorkin is a creative director and XR experience designer at Feeling Digital, a spatial computing studio based in Warsaw.
    He has been creating immersive experiences since 2014, contributing to dozens of pieces across art, marketing, advertising, education, and entertainment.
  • Barna Szarz
    LECTURER, Hungary
    Barna Szász is an XR storyteller & filmmaker splitting his time between Budapest and San Francisco, interested in what XR can do for documentary and humanity.
    He is a graduate of Stanford University’s MFA Documentary program where he also lectures on XR storytelling.
Project Partners:

Previous events:
Tofuzi Animation Film Festival x Interaction XR
Project Team – Film XR:
Curator – Georgy Molodtsov
Technical Director - Vlad Maleev

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

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