The Oldenburg Film Festival enters the Metaverse – The Hollywood Reporter

The Oldenburgs International The film festival enters that metaverse. The indie film festivalknown as “Germany’s Sundance,” celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with a new collaboration that will allow fans to take part in a virtual reality version of the event.

The collaboration announced on Thursday between Oldenburg, the German metaverse platform MILC and the film criticism site The Film Verdict is intended to bring “the magic of Oldenburg” and the international festival scene to the virtual world.

Oldenburg founder and festival director Torsten Neumann also pointed out that “metaverse screenings” – the screening of festival films for a global audience in the virtual reality space of the MILC platform – are potentially the way for international festivals to give fans worldwide access to to procure their premieres and exclusivity events.

Currently, regulations issued by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) require international festivals such as Oldenburg to restrict access to their world premiere screenings to local audiences or individual territories. But a “Metaverse premiere,” argues Neumann, could be a separate event.

“Since the world had to go into digital isolation in 2020, we have decided to use new and innovative formats for the festival as welcome opportunities,” said Neumann, “and the very idea of ​​using the MILC metaverse like a virtual territory to enter that makes claims.” Its own status in terms of digital film premieres could open up new perspectives and support, especially for indie films, seems like an exciting avenue to explore.”

MILC and The Film Verdict launched the first Metaverse-only film festival, the Alpha Film Festival, in March of this year. According to Hendrik Hey from MILC and Eric Mika from The Film Verdict, their collaboration with Oldenburg is part of a common goal to “create a new digital platform for independent filmmakers around the world to premiere their work and break free from the restrictions of traditional digital distribution channels.” .”