This weekend’s Raindance Immersive Awards celebrated the best of VR moviemaking and beyond in 2019.
The awards, hosted in the center of London, included ten categories. They recognized everything from animation and interaction to documentary making and even gaming. The night’s big winner was Gloomy Eyes, the Atlas V and 3dar-produced animated love story narrated by Colin Farrell. The adorable short, in which a zombie called Gloomy falls for a human girl, picked up the Artistic Achievement and Audio Achievement awards.
Afterlife was another double winner. The searing 360 narrative, which deals with a family’s loss of a child, was awarded Best Cinematic Experience and Best Debut Experience.
Meanwhile, Immersive Game (which, for full disclosure, I was a judge on) featured hot competition between Maze Theory’s Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time, Fast Travel Games’ The Curious Tale Of The Stolen Pets, Italic Pig’s Infinite Hotel and Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky. It was The Curious Tale that took home the award.
The Spirit of Raindance award, meanwhile, went to Cosmos Within Us. The piece follows the story of an elderly man trying to recall childhood memories. It utilizes the audiences’ sense of smell and touch in a theatrical twist.
Other winners at the awards included A Box In The Desert, a theatrical VR performance in which audience members have their sense of obligation and trust test. Animated Experience went to Battlescar. The full list of winners (with trailers) follows below:
- BEST IMMERSIVE GAME: The Curious Tale of The Stolen Pets https://youtu.be/6u-oLubMZIs
- BEST INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE EXPERIENCE: A Box In The Desert https://youtu.be/1N8qWTjxVdc
- BEST CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: Afterlife https://youtu.be/klRwViasI2A
- BEST DOCUMENTARY EXPERIENCE: Ayahuasca https://vimeo.com/330447197
- BEST ANIMATED EXPERIENCE: Battlescar https://youtu.be/0qfs72lpf_M
- ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT: Gloomy Eyes https://vimeo.com/311401274
- AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT: Gloomy Eyes https://vimeo.com/311401274
- BRITISH AWARD: BEST UK EXPERIENCE: Glimpse https://vimeo.com/355340109
- DISCOVERY AWARD: BEST DEBUT EXPERIENCE: Afterlife https://youtu.be/klRwViasI2A
- SPIRIT OF RAINDANCE: BEST IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE OF THE FESTIVAL: Cosmos Within Us https://vimeo.com/354853435
